


Ro and 'Tia

by edenkings



Category: Talents Series - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Family Squabbles are more fun with Talent, Full of OCs, Gen, Post TTatH, Worldbuilding and other crap, no really, unseen characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-08-12 04:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7920337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenkings/pseuds/edenkings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The life of Ezro Raven as seen by his children, Roban and Isthia. </p><p>In nine parts, featuring some of the rest of The Raven Clan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. PART ONE: VEGA

PART ONE: VEGA  
When he was very small, Ro had believed that he had the coolest family in the entire Nine-Star league, and, if the question was put to most of his classmates, they would have immediately agreed with him.

After all, everyone (everyone being Ro’s fellow seven year old classmates at Kepler’s only school) knew that the talented were awesome, and that Ro’s grandparents were among the most talented and therefore most awesome.

But when he got old enough to grow out of childish self-centeredness and actually realise that other people thought things, Ro had got the feeling that his grandmother and grandfather weren’t actually the most awesome grandparents to have because they weren’t really all that grandparent-like. And he’d got the feeling that they didn’t think he was the best grandson ever (or even a particularly good grandson all things considered)… and the feeling that they were disappointed with him (and for things he couldn’t change, and probably wouldn’t even if that Talent existed). 

It wasn’t anything in particular that they said which gave him that little niggling thought (that he very carefully hid in the back of his mind, not that it would matter if anyone else in the family really wanted to find out), nor is it anything they did (after all, he grows up in a small dometown on Vega and that is way out the back of nowhere, far from Earth or Callisto, so of course he doesn’t see them at all, thought away aside), but, even (only) as a T-6 (and one who consistently rated as a strong telempath) you …picked things up.  
So as he got older he learned not to speak about the grandparents he didn't really know, and people almost managed to forget (and when they didn’t, he could always fob them off with words like awesome, and they’d go away happy because everyone just knew it was true).

His other grandparents were (definitely) disappointed with him. 

Some of the reasons were the same (they’d practically thrown their daughter at shy, quiet Ezro Raven in the hopes of having a Prime for a grandchild), and some of the reasons were different (Ro looked so much like his father, who wasn’t exactly their favourite person anymore). But those grandparents lived only on the other side of town, and so they didn’t have any (good) excuses for why they didn’t see him.

‘Tia, his little (half-)sister was pretty much Ro’s favourite person. Certainly it had been worth trading his mother (distant, disappointed, and hardly maternal) for a baby sister who simply adored him, even if she was a pain in the way sisters nine-years-younger were. And even though she, at five, was already shaping up to be Prime material (T-2 at the least! Didn’t that stick in the throats of his mother and her parents), it had never even occurred to him to be jealous about it. What was there to be jealous of? Tia would work in a tower, what she dreamed of doing; Ro would be a doctor like his dad like he’d always dreamed of doing.

At fourteen, though, he was old enough to understand, when the local FT&T Tester had come to do the yearly talent test of all the kids out at Kepler (“A Raven, hmmm! Well, I’ve got high hopes for you my boy!”), that sometimes other people, even those who had no right to be, seemed to be disappointed with him too, and that they thought they could make comments to him about it. 

They said things about his dad too (Ezro Raven was the lone T-3 in a family of Primes [people always did forget about uncle Larak, not that Ro had ever met him, because he’d died years before]) which seemed stupid because Ezro was the best doctor on Vega, and if he was off being a Prime then who would deliver all the new babies and stitch up the shard-cuts people got in the crystal mines? 

Something about the surname seemed to make you public property. Which was even stupider, because it was a surname lots of people had. Especially on Deneb, because they all had lots of children (Ro had heard all the jokes before. Only he knew they were part jealousy, because on Vega there was a strict replacement-only policy). But then most of them were still on Deneb, and the three of them were the only ones on Vega. 

Ro looked like his illustrious grandfather, Earth Prime, which itself wasn’t the problem, because almost nobody had actually met the man, and so they didn’t know any better. It was the name, combined with the famous silver streak, the one he shared with his Uncles, Aunts and cousins. And that, everybody knew, made you a relative of Jeff Raven and the Rowan so there was no easy way of hiding the connection as he grew old enough to want to (not that everybody around here didn’t know already).

And everybody else did know (and maybe they were disappointed in the lack of talent shared by Ro and his father, but he didn’t care), because Kepler colony had the permits for ten thousand people, and operated with only about two-thirds of that (and still ran at 112% production), so it was a pretty small town. When new people came, of course it didn’t take them very long to hear the story of Kepler’s doctor (and vet and sometimes-tower-twic because people with those kinds of qualifications didn’t come to Vega). Everyone knew about the break-up of his marriage (tut-tut) that had been the end result of that thing with the nurse, and aside from the obvious result that was Isthia’s birth, Ro didn’t understand why everyone thought they needed to know. More to the point, he hated family names, and having to live up to the people who had owned them before.

It came as a bit of a relief (they’d taken a two-day trip to Callisto when ‘Tia was two) when he’d figured out that they were a little bit disappointed with ‘Tia as well, that it wasn’t just him and his lack of talent that could earn their disappointment. It was for ridiculous and petty reasons (Tia had no control over the circumstances of her birth [he could always briefly catch the thought that they that worried she would turn out like her mother before they hid it]) that his family excluded her (and who at home would have believed that of the just-so-awesome Gwyn-Raven clan?). And that was a disappointment (he’d expected better of people who his father had spoken about so highly [Tia had picked up on his distress and anxiety and thrown a fit, they’d gone home quickly after that]). 

He’d had little to do with the rest of them because of all of it. He remembered meeting his aunts (Damia, beautiful and temperamental; Jenna, sad and small; Raini gave big hugs and she smelled of grass and ponies; Cera had barely acknowledged him), and his uncles (Jeran and Afra scared him, but William Hilk’s obvious disdain had been absolutely terrifying to a small boy).

Of his cousins, he had met only Laria. Four years older than he, she’d been doing her final training before being assigned as Clarf’s tower Prime. She’d done a rotation on Vega (three entire months on planet, and she’d visited once). She’d (reluctantly) come to Kepler as an example of what a colony auxiliary tower was like (neither Aurigae, nor Deneb had them, not having large enough second-cities), and had stayed for a night. Ro thought she was okay, she had been polite, and she hadn’t lied and said she’d keep in touch, and she hadn’t been disappointed when he’d talked about his relatively talent-free life, but the only thing on her mind was her training and her Tower, waiting back on Clarf (boooring!).  
It said a lot (no matter what his father said) when he’d met only one of his sixteen cousins (Grayhan was understandable, because he was just so much older than everyone else, but Jeran’s oldest two children were about his age, and Cera’s daughter Annaliese, and Damia’s children Rojer and Zara), and none of the extended family back on Deneb (Tia still hadn’t met the great-grandmother who she was named for, or her cousins Ewain, Petra and Roran, who were about the same age, although she’d probably get the chance if she really was a T-1). 

But then, Ro was the only T-6 in the entirety of the extended Rowan-Raven family (not that the rating was confirmed yet, that was two years away. It didn’t really matter in the scheme of things (talent was a big part of his life – how could it not be? – but it wasn’t his sole focus). Ro had other plans for his life. 

\--

Ro sees his mother less frequently through his late teens. She doesn’t speak to him for months after he’s given his first official talent rating at 16 (his T-5 rating is better than he thought it would be, but certainly not what she’d hoped). 

He can’t bear his mother’s years-old anger (black and burnt and spiky), or her white face and pursed lips (it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t listen, he still knows) when he speaks about Tia, and he can’t simply leave Tia out of their conversations – she is too much a part of his life. He is not forced to choose between them, but in making sure that he never has to, he loses his mother anyway.

She doesn’t visit often either. The relationship between his father and his mother (broken irreparably by his father’s so-called infidelity [despite the talented coercion by a T-3 empath, he finds out when he is fifteen and his father is stumbling through the bits of The Talk reserved for the psychically sensitive]) had only soured as Ro and Tia had gotten older. It was not easy, his mother’s inability to understand the person that Ezro Gwyn-Raven was, separate from his name and his talent.

It was not hard, on the other hand, to understand her thoughts on ‘Tia. One child with the surfeit of talent, the other a deficiency – his mother’s dream paying itself out on the woman she considered her worst enemy was too much to watch, ignoring completely the fact that Louisa Tollman was imprisoned back on Earth and had nothing to do with Tia at all (Tia is six when she demands, and gets, an explanation of her mother’s whereabouts, given in very simple terms).

His mother had found a new man to settle her dreams and debts on, and Ro was not a part of her new, totally childfree, life. She was as happy as she might be, and he could accept her limitations, and be glad for her from afar. Ro was, by now, well used to being disappointed by all his family but his father and sister, and so it did not bother him that the last threads of their relationship, along with any contact at all, are irretrievably lost when he leaves Vega for Earth and his education. Years later, he attends the funeral for his mother and step father with genuine sadness, but no grief. His father does not attend at all.

His father also quietly marries again, when Ro is nineteen. He takes a few days off school to meet his new stepmother and attend their wedding (he doesn’t get FT&T travel perks anymore – the trip is expensive and is booked months in advance – he’s still delayed by a day coming back from Vega). 

Idra Morrs is not the kind of person Ro expected his father would start a relationship with. Oh, she’s not his mother, nor is she Louisa Tollman (he is old enough now to know the full story about Tia’s mother, and he kind of hates his Raven grandparents for blaming their son for the mental and emotional abuse he suffered at the hands of a dysfunctional T-3, and for the exile to Vega that resulted from them trying to keep the whole PR-destroying situation quiet). He’s been aware of the presence of Idra in his father’s life (Tia ‘calls’ him once a week, and has let him know she approves, which means much to Ro), and arrives expecting to like her, and he does.

Idra is a Vega native, a nurse who had come to Kepler as a relief worker from the Big hospital in Vega after the mine collapse two years before. She has two children of her own (Ro’s new sisters are a year either side of Tia), and had lost a husband to the mines years ago. Ro is relieved that she seems to understand what it means to be the child of a single parent, and that she does not push into the space that his mum used to fill (he finds that he has let her into it within a year anyway. It’s hard not to when Idra makes his dad so happy).

The wedding itself is about as formal as things get on Vega (not very). There is a short service, and the reception lasts the afternoon and goes on into the evening, full of laughing and dancing (Ro does his duty by his sisters (all three) until they all fall asleep on couches lining the walls. Idra’s family are out in force (they’re a fairly boisterous lot, and there are a lot of them). It makes up for the few people on his father’s side (mostly colleagues - Cousin Dean attends, but his grandmother and grandfather are saving the galaxy or something).

His dad does not stop smiling the whole day, and his eyes (and mind) follow Idra around the room. Ro goes back to Earth and his studies with a near-prescient confidence that this will be the best thing that has happened to his dad in a very long time.


	2. PART TWO: GROWTH

PART TWO: GROWTH

Tia is quite happy with her new sisters, and they with her. Reports on their happenings (crushes and feuds, triumphs and defeats as according to Teenage Girls) join the weekly chat (Tia is now old enough to use the genny to call _without_ their father’s help).

The sisters know she’s a talent, but they don’t really know she’s a talent. They understand perfectly well that she’s a Raven, and that she can _do things_ but it doesn’t mean much to them. Maisa and Irinie are not talented, and they haven’t been off-planet. FT&T means nothing to their (slightly vapid) everyday lives. Tia revels in it. For the first time, to other people, she is actually a person, not just the personality that comes with a powerful mind. She stops listening in to them as soon as she is able to completely block everything all the time (Dad [a T-3 with experience beats a ten year old T-1 most of the time] knows when she does it deliberately and he disapproves). After all, he explains, how “public” are their “public minds” really when they don’t have the opportunity as non-talents to understand what’s in it and what’s hidden, and how fair is it when they can’t see back into Tia’s mind? Tia’s big enough to understand that it’s not fair, and she promises not to peek.

Tia becomes completely devoted to Irinie when the talent testing officer comes when she is fourteen. He thinks some awful things about her family (when nobody else can listen) and makes her cry. Her older sister doesn’t know why Tia is crying, but still tells Mr. Fusaiyama to shove it and other rude things, and drags her sisters outside. They all get into trouble but it’s worth it. Especially when Mr. Fusaiyama doesn't come back. Ro says some awful things about Mr. Fusaiyama too (Tia is kind of shocked, but is happy to teach ‘Rinie and Mai the new words she’s learned from her older brother).

It’s not much of a punishment being suspended from school for a week, when Dad and Idra decide that they’re all going to take a trip to Earth to surprise Ro.

 ‘Tia is awed by her tour through the Blundell building when they first arrive on Earth. They are showed around by Gollee Gren, who she knows has been her grandfather’s Twic since forever. This is her first visit to Earth, to FT&T headquarters, so she’s trying very hard to make a good impression, but it’s just so hard to keep polite, and keep her mind out of following the thrum of generators (she can hear a dozen pairs) and the push-pull of minds. It’s so bright with thought and _busy_ (there is one _Earth Prime_ , but there are a network of secondary Earth primes and their T-2s pushing around planetary and in-system traffic from Callisto) and she has never experienced anything like it.

She is pleased to be escorted up to her grandfather’s office with her father (Idra and the other girls have gone shopping, not being of any importance _here_ ), and barely notices the transition as they’re teleported the last bit. Tia knows she’s got power, but her grandfather is _awesome_ ly good.

She is less pleased about being effectively ignored as her father and grandfather discuss people she don’t know and things that happened long before she was born, but finds that being the focus of Jeff Raven’s mind is much, much worse. His questions are polite, and he knows about Vega, and how she’s doing in school, and what Kepler’s tower boss thinks of her and her help (Jinnifer _loves_ the oomph of merging with Tia). She _knows_ he is in her mind, but she cannot find him there, and cannot stop him, and it makes her feel horrible and sick.

Tia hates other people in her head when she doesn’t let them be there. She (still) hates the counsellor woman (muddy brown and _cloves_ , ick) that they had when she was six, who was the first in a long line of people making sure she wasn’t dysfunctional. She dislikes the counsellor at school now, too (T7 and slippery). She only tolerates the testing officers because at least they’re better than Mr. Fusaiyama (he was sticky, cloying and sweet, like rotting flowers, with his mean words and she still loathes him). She doesn’t like Vega’s Prime, David Owens, much either, but she lets him into her head, because he shows he how to do cool new stuff. She knows that there is always someone watching her for signs of crazy, and that (if anything) makes her crazy.

Everyone else, it seems, has rights to privacy, but not her, because she’s a Prime (probably).

And Earth Prime is in her head.

Her father clears his throat, and the feeling is gone.

They are back to ignoring her and speaking of things she doesn’t understand.

She quietly eats her sandwich when lunch is bought in. She does not listen to the hum of machines and minds. She does not notice the brightness, and she flinches away from the cheerful laughter of families meeting again as they pass through the arrivals terminal.

She is not so wrapped up in her own troubles to fail to notice her father’s disquiet. He makes an effort, when they are reunited with Idra, Mai and Rinie, to point out places he has been, to speak cheerfully of things he has done when he lived on Earth during his own medical studies. She wishes she could be more like her father in some ways, she thinks, as the transport takes them to the medical school.

Roban Shorit-Raven graduates first-best from the second-best medical school on Earth at age twenty three, with his father, stepmother and sisters present. It’s a surprise for him to see his family in the crowd (Tia **_THINKS QUIETLY_**  because she’s so excited, and her father laughs in her head and _thinks quietly_ so Ro doesn’t know they’re there) but it’s the best kind of surprise.

Tia has put away her anger/hate/shame at Earth prime (and herself) for now because this is supposed to be his moment, but Ro notices anyway (he always does). He has always been more than just a big brother to her, more like part parent, and a little bit best friend, and the first person/ _mind_ she would always reach for. They are growing into the people that they are and growing away from each other as a result, but they will always be Ro and Tia. She is cheering the loudest for him.

Ro hadn’t expected to see his father at his graduation, and he can’t articulate his surprise and his happiness and gratitude (he has never been happier that he is talented and doesn’t have to). He knows how much his father _hates_ being ‘ported between planets (Jeff Raven had handled his son’s family’s capsule _personally_ , and as if it was worth its weight in gold).

They spend the week travelling, seeing things that they would never see on Vega, shopping at the massive complexes, walking through parks with real grass and real sunshine. Ro packs his life away into two small carisaks, while Tia, Mai and Rinie fill two each with their new purchases and gifts for friends. Almost nobody in their class at school has something that came from offworld, from _Earth_. Tia’s sisters ride high on the thought of guaranteed popularity for months.

Tia does not _listen_ as Earth Prime flings them across space back to Vega. She hears her grandfather’s farewells, but does not reply. Neither, she notes, does Ro.

Ro stays for a month, and then he gets his first real job. It’s on Aurigae, which only has one hospital in its one city, and they want someone for two years of parental cover. Ezro says it’s about as good as you could think of getting when you don’t want to go back to Earth – certainly better than his own first job on Capella. For them all, it’s not really any different to Ro’s being on Earth, because they will still talk once a week.

Ro has been a good brother since he has been home, chaperoning them to dances without complaint, and he has even tolerated being shown off to all their friends as Tia’s much older, very handsome doctor brother. Ro is more amused than exasperated at her friends’ attempts to flirt (at fourteen it’s all giggles and blushes anyway). He’s been a good son, too, helping out with the cleaning of Ezro’s terminally messy office (it has only got worse with Idra’s nursing paraphernalia), and taking on the cooking, cleaning, and tower duties to give his father a break.

Tia expects that life will go back to being quiet and boring now that Ro gone. There are other excitements (fourteen is when they have to choice of staying in school with the intent of going to further education, or choosing a trade to apprentice in that is vital to the mines). Her group splits fairly evenly, and she does not see many of her former friends again. They are grown up and working in the mines, and she is still a schoolgirl trying to meet the academic requirements for tower training. She meets new people, though, to fill the gaps, and she is happy enough to fit back into the comfortable routine of before-Earth-Prime. She listens to Ro’s descriptions of his life on Aurigae and counts down the days until she turns sixteen and can be off on her own adventure.

Despite her (and Ro’s, she knows) misgivings on certain members of the extended family, Tia is excited to hear that Zara Raven-Lyon will be visiting Vega. At fifteen (and-three-quarters), Tia thinks she’s very nearly grown up.  After all, she knows Kepler like the back of her hand, knows the tower like it’s a second home (it is, because her father and Jinnifer have started training her, and, although she’s not allowed to by herself yet, she is hauling in and shipping out 30% of Kepler’s cargo). She’s so looking forwards to showing her home off, because she loves it.

She is also happy to finally to meet a new cousin, because she hasn’t met any of them before (Rinie and Mai think she’s silly, but they’ve always known their cousins, and they don’t really understand just how big it is to finally meet one of them, as she was very small when Laria visited), but the reality is a little bit of a disappointment.

Zara is twenty-two, and seems very sophisticated (Tia knows she grew up on Aurigae which really isn’t that awesome). Zara has also just finished her studies on Earth. She has done a tri-joint degree, xenobiology, biochemistry and psychology. Tia thinks that anyone interested in all that should probably have just done medicine, but it’s not hard to figure out that Zara just doesn’t have the personality to be a doctor. Or, at least, not a very good one – and ‘Tia knows, living on the grounds of a medical complex.

Zara doesn’t really like people all that much as people, just as subjects to be studied (or maybe it’s just the people on Vega). She doesn’t go out to the dances, or the markets, doesn’t even go to the Crystal Fair (and _everyone_ goes to that). She does her duty in the tower, but doesn’t volunteer to do any more than she has to. She doesn’t want to meet Tia’s friends, doesn’t even want to have much to do with Rinie or Mai. She’s not exactly rude to Idra, no, Zara is always scrupulously polite, but _it’s_ always _there_. Whether conscious or not, Zara clearly behaves as if she is above her company. She keeps to herself, and her ‘Dinis, and her daily mindcalls with her siblings and her parents.

Tia is embarrassed. She has spent so long talking her cousin up (Zara. You know, the Raven-Lyon one. With the Hiver queen? She’s a Prime too, like everyone else in the family!)

Zara only really talks to Tia. Their conversations are peppered with odd questions (How did you feel about it when Mrs. Paterson called on Jenny instead of you in class?). Tia amuses herself with giving not-quite rude or slightly off answers. Zara is rude, so Tia does not mind being rude in return. Her father says nothing about it, and he is the arbiter of good behaviour in Tia’s book so she figures it’s fine.

That her father is also slightly rude to Zara, she knows (she doesn’t know that her father knows exactly what is going on – and can’t gainsay his own parents). Tia _can_ feel his frustration at Zara’s dismissal of Idra and the girls (Mai and Rinie have ignored Zara from the moment she first was rude to them). She notes the odd questions Zara has for her father on occasion, but it, frustratingly, doesn’t seem to mean anything. Surely their own cousin, who has professed to be here for a holiday...?

Tia has long used the spare chair in her father’s office as a retreat from the outside world. He is just as happy to allow her to use it to escape Zara as he has been to let her escape from Mai and Rinie when they are being especially Mai-and-Rinie-ish (which is at least twice a day, and five times on weekends).

She reads about half the journals that cross her father’s desk. She doesn’t understand many of the articles (especially the medical ones), but she likes the ones about Talents. Parapsychology is a big field (every issue, someone has found a new application, or drawback, of talent). She reads an article that proposes that there is a lack of body-cues, and the lack of ability to read body-cues in talents from solely-talented households. It makes sense to Tia - why read signs when you can read minds. Maybe it explains Zara.

Weeks pass, and the new routine is not different enough with Zara, Dzl and Plg. Tia extends her ability to speak ‘Dini. She has learnt it in school since she was small (like many people do now), but having live subjects to practice with is much better than Teacher, or their teachers. _They_ are happy enough to be shown about and around. Dzl is interested in the work behind the crystal mines, although this kind of mining is not something Dini’s usually have an interest in. Both ‘Dinis love the pretty crush-shards and make jewellery from them, including sets for the whole family. Tia, her sisters and Idra nearly laugh themselves silly over Ezro’s sparkly necklace and headdress once they are alone.

Tia does, at times wonder why Zara is still here when she clearly does not want to be...

…It’s completely accidental...

She’s finally 16. Finally old enough.

The new-new talent tester is back (she likes him better than Mr. Fusaiyama’s immediate replacement, but not that much better). Mr Fosby calls them out of class one at a time for their interview. Tia signs the intention-to-enroll papers that make up her very first FT&T contract with glee.

She can feel the tester skittering around the outside of her mind. She lets him in, and lets him know that he is there only because she permits it. She answers his questions fairly and as correctly as she can (she really _does_ want to go into FT&T, even if she doesn’t like some of the people that work there).

He asks the usual questions of her, although he skips the ones they usually use for the non-talented or the unconfirmed-ratings. Tia has been a Prime in all but name for years.

The telempathic questions are ones she doesn’t do so well on, although it’s all subjective. Tia’s not particularly empathic, she’s almost mathematical in her gifts, calculating mass and trajectories and energy draw from the generators like an art-form.

He asks about the relationship she has with her cousin Zara. Tia is surprised (but is good enough not to show it). The Tester comes from the big city, and Zara has not been news there. He wouldn’t know about it…  unless FT&T as an organisation is in the know…?

She is unaware that she has quietly reached out for the answer to the question she doesn’t want to ask. The answer that, really, she’d already known, just hadn’t wanted to think about.

The rest of the interview is difficult, but Tia _knows_ she gives all the right answers. She leaves knowing that he is pleased with what she has said, and that the report he will send is favourable.

It’s only when Zara is mind-calling her partner that afternoon (ew, gross!) that Tia thinks that she can slip in without being noticed. In the end, she doesn’t have to do anything other than listen ( _I love you too/I’ll be back soon/I miss you too/Don’t worry, it won’t be long, Tia’s sixteen and she’s been rated now, so she’s not my problem to look after anymore/I know/I can’t wait to see you/We’ll talk soon)._

She doesn’t say anything to Zara through dinner. She doesn’t trust herself to (how much damage could Primes do to each other, she wonders, with what we could do to fight? And how many people would we hurt trying?). She doesn’t trust herself not to lash out. Even with her Dad, and Mai and Rinie and Idra all there. She is angry – but it is that cold-angry of bare logic.

She knows that Zara would be backed up en-masse by _everyone_ else.

It isn’t worth even thinking about

She quietly helps with the dishes, and goes to bed.

Tia is back to being the personality attached to a very useful mind. She hates it more now that she’s old enough to _get_ it. She must think in a way that _they_ approve of. She must be monitored and moulded to fit the specification of Prime. She wonders if Tia is really Tia, or if they’ve changed things already (and is that Tia better or worse than the Tia that should have been?).

She hates it that the things she hates are not ‘correct’. And she hates that they might change that she hates things. She is human, and she should be allowed. She is not perfect, and she should not have to try to be.

Her father knocks on her door, and she _throws_ the lock. It’s a useless piece of defiance, and they both know it. Ezro ‘ports through the door.

_The worst part_ , she thinks, and lets her dad hear, _is that I don’t understand_ why _. I’m not crazy or… anything. Just a teenager. I’m supposed to be mixed up and emotional and hormonal, because this is supposed to be when I figure myself out._

_Deviant personalities in high talents are dangerous_ , _Teapot_ , he thinks back. There is hesitancy (rumbly and sharp) and remembered pain (rotten and puce). _Your mother was a deviant talent. A T-3. And she hurt a lot of people before anyone realised._

_Oh,_ says Tia, and things _kind of_ make a little bit more sense in that context, even if she hates the bits that mean _only her_. She understands her father better than she ever has in her life right now, and wishes that things could be better for the both of them. She sees in her father’s memories. She has been told this story before, but to _know_ is so very much worse. _I am sorry._

She is thinking it, though, privately. She is _not_ her mother. Tia has never had anything to do with her mother.

_It’s okay,_ he thinks back, _you’re entitled to feel the way you do. FT &T damage control is... ruthless. It has to be._

She does understand. But it’s not enough to make up for the ugly dirty violated feeling she has. She was genuinely interested in being family to Zara, before all of this. She wonders if they would have ever crossed paths, if Tia was not simply an assignment.

Ro is back for her birthday party the following week. Zara had already left, which only brings a feeling of relief. Tia has not dared to tell Ro any of this, not while he has been on Aurigae with Zara’s parents. She needn’t have worried, as Damia and Afra haven’t even noticed his presence. The only Raven-Lyon children still at home are Ewain and Petra, and they’re busy in the tower too often to be down in the city, Ro explains. He’s had nothing to do with the Tower at all.

Tia pouts – she couldn’t care less about her aunt and uncle but she loves hearing about other towers. Well, as long as it’s not Earth Tower. She still can’t wait to have one of her own, where she is boss and makes the rules.

On her birthday, the news comes though – T-1, pending. Only Earth Prime officially assigns final T-1 and 2 ratings after the tower training course is completed, now that there are so many high T-rated talents. Tia is given a firm start date – four months away seems like an eternity. The final copy of the training contract arrives as well – less of a contract, and more of a formality – she’s already signed the next two decades away.

The course itself sounds... interesting. There are so many new T-1’s and T-2’s now, that they train them all together on the basics, before they’re sent out to do apprenticeships. It’s not like the bad old days of even ten years ago, when Primes would be given Towers at sixteen or eighteen because of the shortages – Tia will have to wait for an opening. She’s not too worried – there’s massive expansions going ahead. Everyone knows about the Fleets pushing out ever further – it’s on the Tri-D, and Teacher always talks about it in their Current Events lessons.

But FT&T contracts are notorious, and rightly so. Tia knows this. Ro knows this. They read through the expectations of the training course, and the bonded employment expectations, ten times at least. Ro’s new contract is much easier by comparison. His time at Aurigae is up, and he’s had offers from what seems like everywhere to ‘Tia. He chooses Deneb.


	3. PART THREE: MOVING ON

PART THREE: MOVING ON

Deneb is about what Ro expected (although he’s not entirely sure he could put into words what he _was_ expecting). The reputation for a high proportion of the population being talented is certainly true and the laxity of a high proportion of talents in not taking up training is equally true, although the number going into FT &T is ever increasing. They are not as oddball are the stereotype would have them, nor as ‘boonie’. Ro is unsure if that’s because the stereotype is wrong, or if it’s cause he’s a Keplerite. Vega is the very definition of boonie according to his Terran friends. Certainly everyone’s well spoken and polite. He’s used to small-ish communities, and so he’s unsurprised when he starts work and everyone already knows who he is (which is why it’s funnier than it should be that the Doctors’ Raven get their mail mixed up all the time), but what’s not surprising is that they don’t seem know _who he is_ (his father is an afterthought on the family history book in which Ro has never been mentioned). Ro loves it.

Dr. Dean Raven is Jeff Raven’s brother, he finds out, his great-uncle. His knowledge of the much-further-extended family is small, and not something he has ever really been interested in before, so he is happy to listen to the people who are eager to tell him all. The family are common knowledge on Deneb – Jeff Raven is their favourite son.

Dean certainly doesn’t know who Ro is. Indeed, it’s nearly three weeks before anyone makes the connection at all (another fleet is launched out into the depths of space. Ro does not _actively_ participate in the merge, as he is in surgery, but certainly he is aware of it, and instinctively seeks out his father and Tia’s minds in the _push_ as families often do).

Jeran Raven’s duties as Deneb Prime include cross-planetary medevacs, and it’s after dropping a patient in later that day, that Ro receives an invitation for dinner. He’s aware of the issue of another invitation to Dean (Jeran is both tired and **_LOUD_** ).

Dean catches up to him as Ro is leaving for the day. There’s puzzled curiosity and almost a flicker of embarrassment as Dean regards him. This conversation will be about as awkward as any Ro has had with the few relatives he knows.

“You’re one of us Ravens,” He says.

Ro nods.  “And trying to live it down,” he says.

Dean chuckles in understanding. There is a slight mental probe, and Ro allows it this time. Like most of the extended family, Dean is talented. He has never been officially rated, but is likely similar in rating to Ro, but where Ro’s a telepath/empath where the telekinetic ability that is minor, it’s Dean’s greatest ability (he’s not a bad telepath either, but not particularly empathic). He’s an expert on kinetic first aid, and it’s an area Ro has been eager to learn further.

“Ah,” says Dean. “I should have remembered you from your Father’s wedding.”

Ro almost feels guilty for not saying anything, but he has wanted acceptance on his own merits here. Not for being one of Those Ravens. It would have been easy for Ro to fall back on his name, they both know. He thinks he might have proven himself enough by now that any insinuations of the kind will be summarily dismissed.

Dean obviously approves of him, as he offers Ro a ride to Jeran and Raini’s complex in his sled. Ro accepts – he doesn’t have one of his own, as he’s never learned to pilot them (Vega doesn’t have the room in the domes to fly, permits on Earth are far too expensive for medical students to bother with, and he wasn’t on Aurigae for anything like long enough to want to learn, not when he lived on the medical complex). Dean is also kind enough to explain who is likely to be there (Jeran had briefly spoken of the other expected guests, but the rapid-fire list of names and relationships had meant little to Ro).

Jeran and his wife have four children, and the younger three will be there (Ro had met Barry on Earth very briefly and thinks him no great loss from the party, he was now Clariflor’s prime). Josh, the eldest present and also a T-1, is twenty one and officially is on back-up tower duties, though Ro might have called it a holiday, having recently returned from a couple of years in a fleet posting. Celia is nearly sixteen, and Jacen twelve. Both likely T-1s, Dean says with pride.

His great-grandmother would be there, and her sisters Besseva (Eagles) and Medea (Sparrow), as well as sundry descendants and cousins. The youngest Eagles (Amy? Ada? Ro couldn’t remember, for there were at least a dozen of them) had married his cousin Rojer.

Only four of Isthia and Jerry Raven’s then-eleven children had survived the Deneb bombardment, and Jerry himself had not survived long after it, Ro knew that much by now. Dean had been the second-eldest, already working in the well-protected hospital. Third-oldest Jeff and fourth-Rhodri had the Talent and luck, respectively, to escape the missiles. Their youngest sibling Allie had been at home with Isthia, and Ian had not yet been born. Their school aged-siblings and their eldest sister, a teacher, had not been so lucky.

Dean, Ian and Rhodri had also been prolific with fifteen children between them, and there were grandchildren too, at least for Dean and Rhodri, for Ian was an entire generation behind. Allie had never married, Dean explained. She was in the Navy, and married to her career, much to the disappointment of her mother, though Dean couldn’t bring himself to speak ill a friendly face ship-board for Josh’s posting.

Isthia Raven had done well for herself, so far as relatives went, Ro thought, as they arrived at the tower complex. A dozen sleds, twice that in skimmers crowded the landing pad, and even a handful of ponies were outside. It was even more crowded inside – there must be two hundred people at least.

By Ro’s count, incomplete as it was, Isthia had five living children, who had twenty children of their own, most of whom were still around. Ro himself was one of the eighteen grandchildren just from the Rowan-Raven marriage. His Lyon cousins now had two children in Laria’s son and Thian’s daughter. Rojer and his Eagles wife were also expecting, according to the grapevine. Grayhan had high-rated twin boys, who must be about five or so by now. He had no idea how many there were if you counted everyone else.

Dean laughs as he overhears the question in Ro’s mind. _I have four children, who have nine grand-children between them, and two great-grandchildren, Roddie has five, and they have nineteen, and Ian’s six are not much older than you and there are nine grandchildren so far._

Ro is astounded. _That’s seventy-seven descendants!_

_We do things bigger on Deneb._ Dean explains with a shrug. _Mother, of course, is probably T-1, Jeff certainly is, as well as your aunts and uncle, and most of your first-cousins too, excepting Grayhan who’s T-2 and the youngest who aren’t officially rated yet._

Ro well knows this – he alone of the Rowan-Raven grandchildren rates less than T-2.

_I’m probably a T-5, and so is Rhodri. Ian’s a T-3, and the two of them run the satellite tower out west with the help of their kids. They’re a smattering of 3’s and 4’s and a 5. Most of the Deneb Ravens are._

Another voice breaks in, Jeran’s. _Although, couple of the grandkids out that way are looking like Prime-material._

Ro greets his uncle, as Jeran greets his. Dean flicks Ro a grin, eyes twinkling. _My youngest grandchild has just been rated as a Prime. Same training class as your sister, I believe?_

_Johnny?_ Ro knows there’s to be two Raven relatives in Tia’s class. Jeran’s daughter Celia will be the other. They just miss out on having Ewain Raven-Lyon and Roran Raven-Hilk at a year too old, and Petra Raven-Lyon at a year too young.

_That’s him, there,_ Jeran points out a gangly boy with a shock of red hair, _next to the Matriarchs._

One of the three women that Johnny is being spoken at by breaks off to glare at Jeran. _Grandmother Isthia,_ Jeran asides, before he ducks his head and bustles off, attempting to look busy.

Dean is laughing again. _My mother and her sisters. Everyone here is descended from or married to a descendant of them._

_Matriarchs indeed!_

Dean introduces him to a flurry of people – he’ll never remember them all. Present are a few people he recognises – a nurse, one, no, two of the paramedics, the woman who runs the surgical bookings – they are people he tries to remember the names of.

_The rest you can get by with calling them cousin_ , Dean says in an aside.

 It turns out to be useful advice, as well as warning – a lot of other people here seem to get by with calling him cousin as well – mostly the ‘out west’ family of Rhodri and Ian’s, who all seem to know each other but not everyone else. He does get a few intrigued looks from his colleagues, but Dean seems to have let them in on Ro’s motivations. It’s not remarked upon in any case.

He is summoned before _the matriarchs_ , shortly before dinner is served up. The name is well deserved for more than just their extensive family trees, he feels like this is a tougher examination than at his final year of med school. Grandmother Isthia is content to only watch, but her sisters grill him about his life, his studies, his father and sister, and his step-family. They seem to be appalled at his still-single status, and he hopes that no overt match-making will happen. The concept is embarrassing enough without probably being related to any girl they have in mind.

He can’t shield that thought quickly enough and the sisters frown at him identically.

Raini, thankfully, rescues him before that subject in canvassed in too much detail. He’s a guest of honour apparently, this being his first time having a Raven family dinner, and thus gets first pick at the food.

The food itsself – cooked by a procession of aunts and cousins at multiple houses, then ‘ported in, because why not take advantage of multiple kitchens – seems enough to feed all of Deneb twice over. He takes a plate – and sticks to the recognisable, every planet has its weird tastes – and fills it to bursting as Raini and a cousin?aunt? insist on his taking more. He doesn’t quite believe the aunt, ( _Alicia_ , Jeran supplies, _Eagles,_ _Besseva’s daughter_ ) when she says there won’t be much by way of seconds or leftovers.

The rest of the crowd tucks in, however, and he sees that he might just have under-estimated Denebian appetites, because it all seems to disappear very quickly. He strikes up a conversation with Eric, one of the paramedics, as they eat. The group attracts a few other medically-minded individuals, and while they start on medicine, they also talk about the family (always a big topic on Deneb, he’s told), the recent fleet explorations, and the colonisation that’s still going on in the outlying regions on Deneb. They’re interested in Vega too – Deneb is a green planet with a lot of plant life and quite a lot of water – Vega had in the beginning been pretty marginal for supporting life, but had then suffered a massive ecological collapse seventy years ago, shortly after the second wave of colonisation, due to a solar event from Vega’s star. The remaining population was dedicated to crystal mining, and lived in domed cities, protected from the ongoing solar radiation and semi-toxic atmosphere. None of the Denebians could imagine such a life, nor did they want to experience it, which Ro understood. Not many Denebians seemed to leave Deneb, and Vega was a hard place to live and love.

The party breaks up late, much later than they did on Vega anyway, and later even than the few parties he’d been to on Earth. Dean has disappeared off with his family – he’d offered Ro a ride back to the complex, but it was out of his way and Ro had declined as he could see his own way back.

He does manage to wheedle a plate of leftovers from Raini – pleading his bachelor status. She swats him but does add a helping of dessert. He’s a good cook, really, having taken on that job as a child of a single father as soon as he was old enough, but his skills are quite basic. He says goodbyes to the few people he knows who are left, and receives a few invitations for dinner in the coming weeks, which he accepts. Jeran has long since gone to bed, but Josh has taken on the job of seeing everyone safely home – after taking the visualisation he neatly sets Ro in his apartment. 

Ro goes to bed with the feeling of extended family for the first time – and can see why Denebians like it – it’s comfortable. If one ignores the obvious detractions.

While the extended family is well aware of Grandmother Isthia’s coolness towards Ro, it is politely never mentioned, nor thought about. Instead, they all enable it. If Isthia arranges family gatherings, Ro is scheduled to work that shift. If others organise events, well, the family is spread out over many systems, and Isthia finds herself offworld more often than she otherwise might have done at her age.

It has to be said, that this interference is wildly successful. Ro barely notices the absence of his great-grandmother in his life, as he’s far too busy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now you get some actual people who are not my OC's/background characters who hardly get a mention in the Series! I had to break this chapter - originally you saw something of Tia but I've put all that into the next chapter. If anyone's struggling for a timeframe, this is the date which I've based most of my timelines around.   
> It's about three years after TTAtH.   
> The only Lyon still at home is Petra, who is 15.   
> Laria and Thian have kids - they don't feature in this work.  
> The fleet is still exploring, boldly going where no-one has gone before.  
> And Rojer Lyon mentions that 'there's about a hundred of us [primes] now'. I tried counting, but officially there is about 20-25 named, far short of that figure. Even expanding out the Gwyn-Raven dynasty and including the kids, adding a few other Ravens, Owenses, Reidingers, etc, plus counting on a half-dozen 'de-novo' Primes unrelated to the existing families you can't make that number stretch to much more than 60.  
> You'd need a lot of planets to put that many talents into anyway... not a spoiler right?


	4. PART FOUR: BIG MOVES AND BIG MOVERS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tia's turn for the next two? chapters.

Tia usually feels herself to be very grown up and independent – and in some ways she is, compared to the group of friends she has had through the last two years of her schooling. She has had a job – unpaid but still a responsibility - for several years, and it has taught her perhaps more than she realises. Nevertheless it has never come between her and her classmates until now, not really. They’re moving on now too – many to tertiary education in Vega. Some are joining their apprentice friends who left school two years ago in the Mines. None are going as far away as she is – to Earth, to her own form of apprenticeship.

While previous high-T talents would be expected to do an in-house, or at least on-planet apprenticeship-style training, it had become increasingly unstandard as the number of talents, and towers had expanded. Tia’s class would only be the fourth edition of this format of training – in other words, they were still largely guinea pigs – but those who had completed the training (and those who ended up working with its graduates more importantly) had been complimentary. Certainly the two year course, and not being expected to run a tower at sixteen, made a lot of difference.

It’s with a little reservation that she packs her belongings into a few carisaks – Vega does not have the space to own much – the night before she’s to travel. She’s worked her last shift in the tower here. Jinnifer said all things complimentary as she signed off, and the tower staff threw a party for her. Her group of friends has also had a party and it’s all really rather overwhelming. Tia asked that the family not make much of a fuss, but they do have dinner, with all of Irinie and Tia’s favourite foods. Irinie is also moving on – she’s only going to Vega city, however, for her own studies as a teacher.

Her father comes to say goodnight – he hasn’t tucked her in for years but still comes by every so often, especially if she’s troubled. They don’t say much (they don’t need to). She will miss this place, she realises, and she’s not likely to be back for anything other than a short visit – Kepler does not need a Prime.

Idra is in tears as she helps Tia to pack her gear into the capsule. She’s been a good mother, really, these last six years. This will be a worse separation for her stepmother in a way, she has no talent and they won’t be able to speak directly. Tia has the advantage in at least seeing Idra in her father’s thoughts.  She makes sure to hug her extra hard, and for quite a lot longer than she would have done. The rest of the family pile in for a group hug, before the stationmaster tells her it’s time to go.

Tia says her goodbyes, to her family, and then to the tower staff as they hand her off to David’s charge. David is _smoky/blue/cool_ in her thoughts as he tells her that Earth’s a bit delayed due to a spill, and she will be routed through Callisto first. She follows the push, and her grandmother picks up at the half-way, slotting her capsule neatly into a rack on Callisto moonbase. The Rowan is too busy for much more than a brief acknowledgement, it’s a busy time of day, but she does allow Tia to watch as she handles the in-system-out-system traffic flow.

It’s really quite amazing to hear. Kepler handles perhaps two or three ‘ports an hour, mostly small, through to Vega. Vega handles ten to fifteen medium ‘ports per hour, two-thirds of those off-world. Callisto handles a ‘port a minute, of every size and shape, about half of which are in-system and half of which are not... and those go _everywhere_. She hears the echos of four or five other voices in the ten minutes she’s waiting to be forwarded. Her uncle Jeran on Deneb passes on a hello, mentioning that Ro’s been over for dinner, as he takes a carrier. Then it’s her turn and she’s picked up, landing with a bone rattling-thump into the rack at Blundell. The T-2 pair who have received her (twins, she senses, _green/grass/tickly_ , wordlessly send their apologies). Her grandfather, to her semi-relief, isn’t working this afternoon. His backups – the T-2 twins and a trio of high-T siblings are feeling the strain of running Earth Prime’s yard as well as their own. Tia exits the carrier to shouts in the yard – Blundell really isn’t having a good day, apparently - they’re still cleaning up their spill.

She reaches the terminal door – she remembers Gollee Gren, who is waiting for her. Or perhaps he’s overseeing the damage and destruction wrought by Earth Prime’s absence, and has volunteered to shuffle her through arrivals since he’s here anyway.

“Isthia!” He greets her verbally, and offers a hand.

“I prefer Tia, Mr. Gren,” she replies politely, taking his hand. Only the foolish underestimate this man – he effectively runs Blundell and knows everything about everything in FT&T sooner or later. “Less confusion with other illustrious relatives,” she explains at his raised eyebrow. She does admit that her childhood nickname is somewhat not in keeping with the expected _dignity_ of a Prime, but at sixteen she feels she might get away with it nonetheless.

“Call me Gollee, Tia,” he replies, with the mental aside that _I still look around for my father whenever I hear Mr. Gren._ He leads her through to the FT&T staff priority lane. She doesn’t have staff paperwork (yet), and her ID is just her planetary citizen card. The man at the window shoots Mr Gren... Gollee a pleading look but does tap determinedly through her info on his screen. Amused, she answers his questions and waits – it usually happens – and does as he double-takes at her surname, then her first name. Gollee is almost as amused as she is, though perhaps more amused at her amusement.

Another look and the thought _?seriouslymustbeaRaven-Raven?_ from the T-6, and he hands he a badge and waves her through.  She smiles at him cheerfully as she thanks him but admits to nothing and holds her impenetrable shield. Such always puts people off. One day the novelty might wear off but she’s really only been off planet a couple of times and it hasn’t yet.

Gollee directs her down to the ‘rail terminal, and collects another three bored-looking teens on the way through. Their training will be based at another FT&T complex about a half-hour away. Close enough to Blundell for parts of their training but not so close as to interfere with the daily operations of the Tower. Many of the tower staff live out at the old Reidinger estate, so there’s a dedicated line running every half an hour or so. Teleporting into or out of Blundell is strictly frowned upon, Gren (with his Twic voice and _voice_ ) admonishes them. Especially for half-trained talents who don’t know how the Tower here works.

He shoos them onto the train, and the four of them find a carriage for themselves. Tia’s tried to guess who is who based on the profiles that came with her contract but she’s not entirely sure. The gangly blond boy is definitely T-1 but not a relative, so must be Thomas Ducat. He’s Altairian, which is a bit like Deneb in that it’s a bit of a new-ish planet, not too weird or oddball but a bit countrified. With lots of emergent talents popping up.

The other boy and girl resemble each other a little but probably not enough to be siblings. There aren’t any siblings in the class, and the only shared surnames are the trio of Raven cousins. The girl is short, dark and dressed in long flowing but plain and unadorned clothes, while the boy is also in simple understated but more masculine gear. Long tunics and dresses are unheard of on Vega outside of the nursery – most wear shipsuit style cuts regardless of gender. Still she’s vaguely envious of the dress – the cut is beautiful and very flattering. It’s not a style she is familiar with. Maybe they’re the pair from Truro, she thinks.

They introduce themselves as the train sets off and Gollee Gren’s supervisory presence disappears. She’s right about Thomas – Thom, he prefers – but wrong about the duo, who are from Spica. They are cousins – their mothers are twins, and they have grown up together. He is the unusual T-3 in their class, but the cousins work so well together that they didn’t want, nor did FT&T want, them to be separated. Both are shy and clearly overwhelmed – Spica is not as small population-wise as Vega, but it does not have a tower, and discourages visitors. It’s known for its oddball cults and was a closed-community planet for seventy years – perhaps a little like Truro in some ways, so she wasn’t too far wrong – and doesn’t have too much of a history of Talented. Lusi and Remek intend to return to their home planet after their training to have a basic tower facility in case of emergency.

Tia and Thom are clearly both curious but exchange a mutual glance of compassion and make the effort to put the two at ease. They’re not from Earth either, and Tia understands the feelings of culture shock. They draw the two out with descriptions of their own planets – Vega’s always a bit of a shock to those who don’t know much about it – and if Tia’s at least familiar with Altair, being as it is her Grandmother’s home planet, Thom is a gifted storyteller and she enjoys hearing more about it. It’s a short trip but Tia’s firm friends with the three by the end of it.

It becomes evident that they’re the last to arrive into their building at the Reidinger Complex by the noise and the _noise_. _Somebody isn’t shielding_ , Tia thinks exasperatedly. Such is the height of talented rudeness. Sixteen high-talent teenagers  in a confined space has its obvious problems, which is probably why the building is at the far end of the estate, separated from everything else by a small park and recreational facility.

The dozen people already there are playing dodgeball. Or, more correctly, The Raven Cousins, Johnny and Celia, are “playing dodgeball”, testing each other’s strength, while the others are attempting to gain control of the balls back and un-hijack their game.

Lusi looks particularly horrified at the clamour, and Remek concerned at the force being used, so Tia hurries them off to find their rooms, but lends Thom a bit of strength to help as he contemptuously steals the balls away for the T-2’s, and then keeps Johnny and Celia occupied. Tia might be a T-1, but she has no time for those T-1s that think they’re above other talents.

She’s finished settling the two into their rooms – thankfully they’re roughly grouped together in one of the two wings - and ‘ports Thom’s two bags into his room as she passes it on the way back to her own. She _hears_ another talent, an adult, break up the game, and isn’t surprised when Thom pokes his head in to peer into her room a few minutes later. He’s grinning, the smug smile of the just, which she matches.

“You’re two down on the left,” she tells him, and he flicks her a salute before heading to his room. She gets a flicker of gratitude as he spots his bags. Meanwhile, she unpacks and sets her room up – it’s her home for most of the next two years. It’s bigger, she admits, than the one she’s used to. And it has its own ensuite – a luxury! There’s a bunk, a couch with a small table in front and a desk and cupboard built into the wall. Her meagre possessions look almost pathetic on the hangers – they take up less than a quarter of the rail, and she fills only the top drawer in her desk.

She has a clock on the wall – it’s early evening here, and just after mid-day Kepler time, she realises as she sets up her own clock, a present from her sisters several years back. She’ll leave this one on Kepler-time, with it’s not-quite-20-hour day. Just so she knows what the family are up to, and so she can call at a better time. _Anytime_ might be doable, but really nobody likes midnight wakeups.

 _Your introductory session and welcome dinner will begin in about half-an-hour, class,_ is sent as a broadcast message, _you are welcome to come to the dinner hall from now to meet your instructors informally if you so wish._

That rather puts people on their honour to come early, Tia thinks, and clearly her friends think so too as she gets a query from Thom, and Lusi-Temek, and they all agree they’re good to go. Tia smiles at them all as they meet up, and they firmly collect another girl who has shyly introduced herself as Lauren Owens, rooming next-door to Lusi, and head to meet everyone else. Tia thinks this next two years will go better than she hoped for after all.


	5. PART FIVE: TRAINING

**PART FIVE: TRAINING**

The novelty of training to be a Tower Prime or Twic quickly wears off. The work is hard, and there is _a lot_ of it. Furthermore, they’re expected to gain another qualification on top of their Prime certification.

None of them really expected the workload – this is very, very different from how things used to be, and the stories relatives have told them bear no resemblance to _this_.

Three months in, Tia’s exhausted.

She wishes she hadn’t picked nano-engineering as her other qualification, I mean sure it’s interesting but it’s the most stressful of all the courses that are approved.

Lauren, who has opted for linguistics as she hopes to go out on a fleet posting, is much, much more relaxed, and has time to get out of the complex to go shopping, or visit the multitude of Owenses that make up her family, most of whom seem to live in the complex.

She’d be jealous but that would take energy, and she doesn’t have any to spare. Besides, Lauren did her washing that one time, and always has home baking which she shares freely.

They’ve picked up another two into their group. Nezha is one of the two from Truro, who gets along well with Lusi. Anath is from a space-station mining colony in the Alshain system, near Altair. He gets along well with Thom – both have chosen spacecraft engineering. There are enough similarities with engineering basics that they study together, and frequently their assignments coincide when Tia has to find applications for her nano-engineering and the boys have to find ways of engineering spaceships. It works.

Her cousins, she finds, are distant. She has little enough to do with Johnny, as he is full of Denebian enthusiasm and still doesn’t seem to get the concept of personal space. Celia is distant, snooty, almost, and much like her aunt Cera, at least, the hazy recollections Tia has of Cera. Unsurprising as the girl had been fostered out with her aunt for several years.

 They must work together of course, all of them do in various combinations to make up mock Tower teams, but they do not socialise. She certainly prefers Celia with her quiet distance and thoroughly drilled competence to Johnny’s general messiness in mind and in merge.

They do not spend much time at all with the group of ten in the next class up, though Celia is an exception as she is close to her cousin (and foster-brother) Roran.

The week starts on a bad note.

They get three month, six month, one year and eighteen month interviews as part of their evaluations. Something about how they get interviewed every year during their post and it’s a major part of their performance appraisals. They’re told, at the last minute what these entail, and Tia’s not impressed. The interviews themselves will usually be with a _panel_ of FT&T staff, and their teachers. They get psych evals ( _joy_ ) as a part of it, and medical evals too (expected when FT&T foot your medical bills for the next 20 years). None of it is negotiable.

She’s so damn jealous of Lusi and Remek when Lusi tells her they get to go together, but Lusi and Remek are such good souls that they understand.

She thinks she gets through ok – her panel is made up of Elizara Reidinger, Anwen Owens (Lauren’s mum) and her favourite of their instructors, Joseph Parker, who teaches Ethics. It’s an eval heavy on the soft-side-of-things topics, Elizara is a doctor and healer of course, and Lauren’s mum is a psych. So she’s asked about biology and psychology and of course, ethics. Which feels pretty pointed, to be honest, because _she_ has never done anything unethical, not since she was a child, unlike some people she could name.

Thom gets more questions on tower staffing and legalities. Lusi and Temek get a relatively similar panel, with more on functioning as a pair. Lauren doesn’t get her mum on panel, but they hit her with her weak spots (paperwork and the care and feeding of the dynamos). It all seems pointed, designed to probe for weaknesses or behaviours that their instructors are concerned with.

It’s all subject to thorough discussion and dissection over the following days until they get told that their first one isn’t taken into account anyway because they’re still settling in. Tia screams into her pillow, feels sorry for herself and mopes for an hour or so, and then gets back to work because her next essay is due on Monday and she’s barely looked at it.

Her father bears the brunt of her complaints, however. But he has thoroughly educated himself on ethics, and he’s a Talented physician, so gives Tia only a little sympathy when she tells him. Ezro also agrees that it’s a bit pointed, put reminds her of the necessity of FT&T making sure it knows what its’ talents are up to, especially if they’re up to something they shouldn’t be. She signed up for this, and part of it is the agreement to be monitored – and to modify anything that they raise concerns about, or accept their strictures if she wants to keep her job – and even her Talent.

So she doubles down and studies harder, because clearly she has to prove herself so much harder than anyone else.

It’s only after six months, that everything stops feeling like it is insane. They get the mid-year assessment, which is another painful and demeaning round of evals, and now that their instructors seem to think that they’re not all completely incompetent, they get to spend once a week at Blundell helping out in yard D.

Their groups rotate month by month, just like in training. She seems to be paired with everyone, but never seems to manage the group she would prefer (Lauren, Lusi and Remek).

The one week she gets paired with the other three Primes is one she would like to forget. She isn’t the problem, and in the aftermath, the blame apportioned to her _is_ less than the others, who lose all privileges for the remainder of the year. Tia still thinks it’s unfair that she gets blamed at all when she did what she was supposed to – support and shield the T-2 who was merge-focus – but apparently there were expectations that she should break up the metaphorical dick-measuring competition going on between the other three. It costs them in a critical moment as the merge nearly falls apart with the conflict of Ego, and two capsules are dropped.

Earth Prime, who handles the mess afterwards – and quite frankly reams them _all_ over the coals – demands to know if any of them had even bothered doing their jobs enough to know what had been destroyed. He has a point, Johnny and Thom don’t, and Celia has only a vague idea. Tia, last to be questioned, can tell him near exactly. She has worked as expediter with Jinnifer back at Kepler, and she knows to keep an ear out for the contents. It shouldn’t make a difference to how they port (there is a “100% On Time, 100% Undamaged, 100% Your Comfort Guarantee” – the latest tag-line in advertising), but it does, and everyone knows it.

Earth Prime is impressed enough that she remembers, but not so impressed that he doesn’t change tactics to what _she should have done_. Tia, who never had any intention of taking merge-lead with this bunch, silently fumes, and publically agrees docilely to everything that gets said.

Anything to get out of this hated office quicker.

They spend the rest of their month together back in the mock tower being drilled on mind-merges until their heads ache, and none of them are allowed to be merge-lead for the next two months until their instructor agrees that they have _learned their lesson_.

Work slackens off throughout the year, and Tia’s not sure if it’s actually a lighter workload or if she’s just getting better at managing it. But everyone else seems to agree. Lauren says her mum has told her they keep the new ones busy because they’re all away from home for the first time, and teenagers and full of hormones. Better to keep them busy while they get to know each other than have a whole bunch of love-sick teenagers in confined space. Not that it seems to be working well for everyone as Johnny seems to have been getting _Denebianly_ close to as many of the girls as he can. After the first year, Lauren’s mum says, they want people to pair off because high-T’s make high-T babies. It’s incredibly awkward when she realises that Thom has a crush on her.

They do get an end of year break – Tia spent her two weeks off Earth, one with her father and stepmother on Vega, and the other week with her brother and his _giiiiirlfriend_ on Deneb (she hates Deneb. It’s like Johnny but it’s everyone, and it’s awful), but she does enjoy the rest she gets. On Vega anyway – by the time she gets to Deneb she is bored stiff and desperate for something useful to do. Johnny, also home for the break, asks her if she wants to do some Tower duty (under the watchful eyes of her uncle Jeran) and she leaps at it. Johnny is way less annoying when he’s amongst his own on Deneb, and she can almost like him.

At the end of the week, she gets something like approval from her uncle, which is weird more for the fact that it shouldn’t be weird. She is not used to appreciation from anyone in her family outside of her brother and father. To know that she will be given a good review by her uncle is fantastic, but it leaves her feeling conflicted and confused. At the obligatory family party (to see Johnny off for his second year, Tia is an afterthought) she avoids Jeran. It goes unnoticed.

Her class all arrive back for their second year, and it’s as if Thom is meeting her again for the first time – he’s back to being kind of awkward and weird. Lauren thinks they’d make a cute couple, so she agrees to go out with him, now that they’re second years in the course, and apparently responsible enough to be let loose unlike last year (they briefly meet the class incoming below them, which includes two Primes – a Reidinger relation and Petra, the youngest Lyon).

It’s kind of weird and gross to know that people are following them on their dates, and she is sure that people are. She’s come across Gollee Gren at least five times, and once he was with his wife. Elizara Reidinger and one or other of her children has just happened to be in the area twice. Lauren’s mum has been spotted a couple of times too, and they’ve only had, maybe eight or nine dates. They’d make it a game to spot the spotters, but it’s just _weird_.

It’s even more weird and gross to know that Grandfather and Grandmother approve of Thom, and seem to want her to agree to a long term relationship (when she isn’t sure herself if this is something she wants). Which is taking dynastic notions waaay too far. She’s seventeen-and-a-half, and it’s just creepy.

Her father visits earth for a conference, checks her implant for her, and tells her she isn’t paranoid, because if you’re a Prime, everyone is definitely out to get you. Tia rolls her eyes. Ezro mostly flies under the radar in the family, and she’s kinda jealous of her father because of it. She’s conveniently forgetting the reasons why he has been effectively ostracised by most of them, and her father raises a disapproving eyebrow. She apologises, and he hugs her and ruffles her hair.

She realises that the stress of a relationship (and everyone’s expectations) isn’t really worth it, and Thom agrees. They stay friends (with benefits) for a few months, but by mid-year they’ve totally broken up, and are back to being _just_ friends. The questions in her eighteen-month eval are mortifying. So are Thom’s.

They commiserate with wine, but go back to their own beds for the night


	6. PART SIX: NEW HORIZONS

**PART SIX: NEW HORIZONS**

Eleanor is a surprise, to say the least.

Six months into his stay on Deneb, Ro quite literally runs into the prettiest woman he has even seen. He can’t quite put his finger on what it is – she’s not conventionally pretty, he has to admit – her curly brown hair worn unusually long for a medic, her skin is too tanned to fit the lastest fad, her eyes are a plain brown. But she smiles at him as she helps him pick up the half-dozen datapads they have dropped, and he’s metaphorically bowled over again.

They make their introductions – she is talented _soft/mint/pale-green_ a T-6 empath-telepath and she is a doctor on rotation in from out west.

And she’s Eleanor Raven, a second cousin, another of Dean’s grand-children.

It takes him aback, he has to admit. There’s something decidedly weird about having an attraction towards your cousin.

But he does get to know her, professionally and personally, and he’s nothing short of very, very impressed.

Eleanor graduated first at the second-best medical school on Earth. She lived there for seven years, and it shows. It’s rare for Denebians to leave but you can tell which ones did so. It’s something in the way they think, talk, carry themselves.

 They share a few research interests, and specialities (notably emergency medicine), but Eleanor’s experience has been more hands on. So when he naturally gravitates towards her at family parties to talk shop, nobody mentions it, and when she sits with him at lunch to show him the latest article out on something-or-other, it makes sense.

Of course, there’s now three Doctor’s Raven to get their mail mixed up (worse, two of them Dr. E Raven!), and he shocks himself, when, after dropping off her mail one day he asks her over for dinner without really thinking about it too hard.

But she smiles that smile at him and he doesn’t really mind too much when she has to pass, but counters with an offer – hers, but next week as she’s got to go back west for the weekend.

She’s a good cook, he learns. She likes simplicity, but quality. Her apartment is minimalist – a refreshing contrast to almost everything else on Deneb. So he doesn’t feel too bad when she arrives at his the next time, as his place is still rather spartan. They trade recipes, and she lends him a pan when he runs out of cookware for some new concoction.

He realises that she’s serious about him when she takes a job full time, passing on the role out west that she loves for someone else to do.

Nevertheless, they fall into a comfortable routine. His, then hers. Lunches, on occasion. Both like order, and Deneb is not normally the place to find it.

Ro’s astonished when Eleanor throws into casual conversation shortly after their first anniversary, “Well, do you suppose we should get married then?”

He’s not a big fan of marriage, really. But he remembers when he was small, declaring that he’d never want to get married because girls are icky. His father had laughed, and said he hadn’t met the right woman yet. He laughs, and tells Eleanor.

Because she is the right woman, even if it’s not really the right time, or place.

But that doesn’t matter – there’s a conference back on Earth in four months they’re both going to, and eloping has all the joy, with none of the extensive, expensive and exhausting partying  a Deneb wedding requires.

They’re definitely in one mind about that.

So he accepts her proposal, and they keep it really, really quiet. Nobody seems to suspect a thing, which, in a family of talents is on another level of epic.

He’s glad to be spared the fuss and nonsense that a wedding would engender, but the recriminations when they return, papers in hand, are something he wishes they also didn’t have to face. Certainly for Eleanor’s sake, as she is the target of most of it.

Grandmother Isthia sniffs at them both disapprovingly at the ‘emergency’ family gathering that happens, which practically everyone attends. Ro ignores it – as he always has, but Eleanor is more fond of their great-grandmother, and she is devastated by the dismissal that she receives for the rest of their time of Deneb.

Dean, who has been something of a mentor to Ro, and who is Eleanor’s grandfather might approve of their relationship (and he’s the one who, two weeks after their marriage goes public, insists on DNA from them both because _it doesn’t matter if you want kids or not, accidents do happen and you’re related, if distantly, and you need to know now if you’re carriers for anything_ ) but also disapproves of the circumstances.

It makes things uncomfortable, and they certainly don’t hesitate to take leave when it’s offered for something of a honeymoon, even if they do choose to go to Vega (which, it has to be said, is last on the desirable romantic destination list) for two weeks.

Eleanor and Ezro get along like a house on fire, except, not, because houses on fire are messy and neither are _messy_. In contrast from the Deneb family, Ro’s family here are thrilled, and have held no expectations about weddings or invites to thereof. Well, except Mai and Irinie, but he’s bought them Denebian rugs and they forgive him.

The inevitable party is in keeping with Ro’s preferences – quiet! Ezro and Idra have invited several of Ro’s old friends, those he has kept in touch with, and a few of their own friends who have had impacts on Ro’s life. Eleanor is thrilled to talk emergency med, Vega-style, with Ezro and some of his colleagues from the big city.

“You know,” she says, when they return to Deneb, “I can see why you are like you are,”

Ro must look perplexed, because she elaborates, “Vega. The planet you come from makes a big part of who you are. And you’re very Vegan. I supposed I’m very Denebian, too. But not too much.”

Ro laughs and embraces her. “No, not too Denebian.”

\---

Tia graduates, now an adult at eighteen, to find the promise of a tower sadly lacking. Even the ship postings are full up. In fact, none of their class of sixteen get postings. The waiting list has a half-dozen names from the previous two classes still on it.

Lusi and Remek are devastated to learn that their tower on Spica has been put back another two years, and aren’t at all mollified by being told that it’s a good thing because they could do with some real world experience.

Thom, the “not-Raven-prime” is sour for days, complains about nepotism and Tia goes back to ignoring him.

The only prime placed into a Prime assignment in the last 18 months has been Ewain Raven-Lyon into Capella, as Capella Prime is now well into her 11th decade, and at least Ewain has Capellan heritage (rumor says he hates the posting – Tia can’t find it in her to be either jealous or sympathetic, Capella Prime is ancient and has a reputation for being completely neurotic, but then again Ewain is a total prig).

The powers that be, are, however aware of the problem and find their solution in adding new, temporary positions to existing towers to “bolster their numbers”. Tia thinks it’s a bit like throwing shit at the wall to see if it sticks. Most towers have fixed staff for a reason – adding new personalities is always an adjustment and their six month temporary contracts aren’t really enough to get a feel for things.

Still, there are five Primes and seventeen T-2’s to be dealt with and this seems to be the best solution in the meantime. And unlike most FT&T assignments they have a number of places and the same number of people, so haggling for spots is going to be acceptable as long as all places are filled.

So, naturally, they all book a conference room for the day and make a party of it.

Gollee Gren says nothing about the mountain of junk food on the table when he arrives with the datachip, but they all get the feeling that he just hopes they don’t end up destroying the room – they’re all still (technically) teenagers.

It’s Roran, another Raven cousin who gets the honours of putting the chip into the Tri-D – he was one of two Primes in his class of ten and had been unassigned for over a year now, having picked up only a temporary slot in the mean time assisting Clarf tower through Laria’s most recent pregnancy. It hadn’t been a great experience for him, or so the rumour mill went, and the rumour mill in Blundell was generally reckoned to be about 40% accurate and 40% exaggeration though the 20% sheer fabrication was fun to wade through. Given Roran’s Procyon-spawned attitudes, Tia was pretty sure Clarf and its Twic would have been an experience, to say the least.

The list is met with the expected chorus of groans – to be honest Tia wonders what her classmates are thinking – there are no open posts, so there certainly aren’t good slots available. The only ones who have agreed to let their arms be twisted for hangers-on are either family, or the ones that want or need a favour from the upper echelons of FT&T.

Two of the assignments specify Primes (but they’re fleet postings covering the Raven-Lyons on paternity leave), and only three of them will accept two people, including the bonded-pairs of T-2’s, which makes things easy for Lusi-Remek and the pair in the class above. They get first pick, lucky them, with the remaining slot being returned to the free-for-all. The other fourteen are considered open season. Tia has little interest in shipboard life, so doesn’t put her name down for any of those, and she’s not particularly interested in staying on Earth (those are choice slots for everyone else for some reason).

Celia, likewise has no interest in being on-ship so they leave the boys to battle it out. Thom and Roran end up with the postings, to their delight. Johnny groans.

Lusi-Remek and Clara-Julie, twin sisters from Old England return from the corner where they have been discussing, and confirm their slots on the Tri-D. Six slots filled. Then they work through by exclusion.

Two of the boys, one of whom is Anath, are the only ones with names down for the mining ships, so they get those. Likewise, only one actually wants the position with Callisto’s stationmaster. The two from Truro take up the postings there with no real dissention from the rest, as they all know Nezha’s mother is unwell, and Tortorem, the other Truroite is her closest friend here.

The group who want the earth-postings, and the remaining ship postings start blackmailing and bribing next. Celia takes ones of the Earth slots at a secondary Earth Tower in Old Japan by dint of the fact that she’s a xen-bio and it is right next to one of her mentors, which no one can really argue with. Realistically, Tia knows she is left with either the Aurigae or Altair postings. She’s not really thrilled with either, and even after another drink it’s not exactly looking good.

Hendel, one of the T-2s in the class above, having lost out on his first pick is the last one left. So Tia lets him decide. He’s surprised enough at her offer to choose, _him being only a T-2 and her a Raven shows in his thoughts_ , but doesn’t seem to want to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He picks Aurigae, which she is relieved about. Her Aunt Damia is not exactly one of her favourite people.

The posting is fine. _Just_ fine.

She doesn’t get to do much, to be perfectly honest – the Bastianmajanis are incredibly competent, and have only agreed to take someone on while Flavia is off having children and the other children are haring around in the Fleet. She works well enough with them, having learned from Lusi-Remek not to get too pushy around bonded pairs. She’s worked in Towers before too, and a busy one like Vega, so this isn’t exactly exciting or a good use of her time.

She finds herself teaching the Bastianmajani’s young relatives how to use their talents in her spare time – there are a dozen of them and mostly high-T. They’d already turned out a Prime in Flavia, and Flavia’s son was also looking like Prime material, Bastian told her proudly. The rest weren’t, but she thought a few would make T-2.

Ro is less in contact than usual – he has had his Tower generator privileges in Deneb effectively revoked, and while Tia can reach that far, the effort for Ro to speak back gives him headaches. Ezro is also less in contact too, and Tia finds she misses them.

Still, she uses her time to catch up on what seems like two years of sleep. She works on her tan. She gets a few hobbies, learns to drive, and to shoot.

It’s _fine_.

The recall notice isn’t quite a relief but it’s welcomed.

Eighteen of them, fighting it out for assignments, a little over six months down the track. Same people, mostly the same assignments, definitely the same room. They didn’t trash it too badly then, as they’ve been allowed back.

Some of them have found their way into jobs, so maybe this shit-sticking actually works. Tia is amused at the thought. Lusi and Remek aren’t there, as the planetary board of Spica has stumped up the money to pay to have their application for a tower expedited. Nezha too, is missing as her boss has taken pity on her and her mother and extended the contract. But Thom is here, and has been back dirtside for two weeks, as his boss Thian Lyon has taken paternity leave for his second kid and the replacement Prime wasn’t interested in the ‘competition’ of a backup.

Needless to say, Thom’s in a foul mood.

She’s less amused when she winds up last-on-the-list again with Hendel looking at the choice between Aurigae and Altair. And Hendel hated Aurigae. “Too many guys, not enough girls,” he grumbled. “I’ve no interest in being a monk.”

Lovely.

To Aurigae tower she was to go.


	7. PART SEVEN: OPTIMISM

**PART SEVEN: OPTIMISM**

She manages to get her name in, late notice, on the dynamo request log at Blundell. It is a late call for Earth – 3 am – but Blundell never really sleeps, and she’s aware of how lucky she is. Oh, she  _could_  call her father without aid, he is able to draw on Kepler’s dynamo which is a free-for-use kind of deal, but she’d be even more tired in the morning and it’s not going to make her look good to anyone doing an unpowered send that far.

She throws herself onto the couch, slumping, reaches out for the dynamo, then sends her mind skimming across space towards the familiar  _cool/sparkliness_  that she associates with Vega. Her father is awake – it’s early morning there, around six - and he is making coffee.

_I don’t have much prescience, Teapot, but sometimes it tells me enough. What has happened?_

It’s as if a huge weight has come off her shoulders at the familiar mind-voice. She straightens on the couch, letting the dynamo slide off its peak as she feels her father pick up the higher-pitch of Kepler’s smaller dynamo.

 _You’re getting better at that,_ her father’s approval is a warm balm, soothing through her mind.

 _I’m going to Aurigae for six months_  comes pouring out. She doesn’t inflect the comment, but she doesn’t need to.

 _Ah,_ the single word is filled with so much. Ezro doesn’t exactly get along with most of his siblings – his relationship with Cera is positively glacial, Jeran is distant, through polite enough. Damia has always been tempestuous, to say the least (though not as bad as the Rowan was in her  _bad old days_ ). Ezro was closest in age to Larak, though  _he_  was always firmly attached to Damia, right up until his death, so long ago now that most forget he existed. Damia hadn’t exactly replaced one younger brother with the next, if anything, she had gone the opposite way and had ignored him. There is always the lingering blame – Rowan had never really coped well with her pregnancies, and Ezro had been at least  _part_  of the reason for his siblings’ being relegated to Deneb for much of their childhoods. Ezro himself had never been raised with his siblings – so many years younger (and quieter, and less prone to inappropriate outbreaks of Talent, and being less Talented in general) and being firmly raised within Callisto’s dome – had separated them from the relationship they probably would have had otherwise.

 _Any advice,_  she thinks.  _I’ll take anything right now._

 _Let me wake your brother_. Ro is visiting with his wife – they earn enough now as doctors to be able to manage a trip to Vega every year.

Her brother joins into the conversation a minute later, sleepy, but he wakes up well enough at her news.

  _Aurigae, huh sis! Whoa, you’ve landed on a doozy,_ her brother says. He is a far fainter presence than their father, and much less capable of drawing from the generators, so she has to listen harder for him. She hears more too, his sleepiness makes him more open. She can tell that he is concerned, though. It is a relief to be understood.

  _What can you tell me?_ She asks.

Their father has never been to Aurigae, and while Ro spent time there, it was not in the Tower. Hopefully between them, they will manage a plan.

 _Aurigae itself is fine,_ Ro says, _it’s not unlike Altair or Deneb, it’s temperate. Just the bugs change._ Vega doesn’t have much anymore by way of native fauna and flora. Neither does Callisto, obviously. Bugs were an unpleasant surprise to all of them, a shared experience that had been the source of many stories over the years.

 _The people there are fairly normal,_ Ro continues, _Mostly miners and the like, which is a bit different. You’ll be able to talk engineering in general. Most of them know they’re dependent on the Tower so they’ll be respectful enough – Aurigae tower does have a good reputation, even if most of the Family have kept away from the city itself._

 _Do they?_ Tia isn’t too surprised, but then everywhere else she had been – Vega, Deneb, Earth and Altair – there isn’t a distance between The Tower Crews and the population.

  _Some of the kids went into town,_ Ro says, _though not all of them. Mostly the family keeps to themselves._

How boring – she doesn’t mean for the thought to slip, but it does, but she can feel the amusement of her father and brother.

 _Yeah, If I were you I’d get a place near the Hospital. It’s a good crowd, and I’ve got a few contacts there still. Lemme check._ Ro disappears from the conversation, though Tia gets a sense of purposefulness before he goes.

 _Afra is a good man,_ her father says, _I learned a lot from him growing up, as he used to take care of me fairly often when Mother was busy. You’ll do fine with him so long as you are polite. He is not so Methody as he once was – raising a horde of children tends to do that – and he is very good at teaching Prime talents._

Tia does know of her father’s respect for Afra Lyon, though she also knows they have not kept up the relationship they once had. It’s all distance and history now.

 _Damia..._ her father trails off, and she gets a sense of remembrances, but her father is shielding them, and she does not pry. _You have met your aunt._

 _She reminds me of Grandmother,_ Tia thinks.

 _They have their similarities,_ her father chuckles, _though neither appreciates the comparison. Again, time and children have mellowed her, and she is good at teaching. The Lyon kids, and the ones that she and Afra have mentored over the years do well._

_They won’t appreciate any attitude from you, though, my little Teapot. Not from a largely unknown niece. You may be their relative, but they do not know you, or your sense of humor._

Tia pulls a face. _I can behave myself,_ she says.

_Nevertheless, I agree with your brother, that you would do better living off-site. Read up on the information you are given. Work hard, and it is hard work lugging ore drones._

_Alright,_ she says. _I miss you, you know._

Her father sends her a mental hug. _I am only a call away._

The slot is up, and she says her goodbyes – sending a pointed farewell at her brother, who tells her he’ll forward the info he has.

She sleeps in late, but true to his word, Ro’s packed up a message tube and it arrives as she’s eating a late breakfast.

The datapacket she is given with the assignment confirmation is scrutinised thoroughly, as per her father’s advice. Aurigae City is the largest settlement on the planet, though six smaller settlements exist, one of which is near solely Mrdini, though the rest are mixed. There are around fifty thousand inhabitants on the planet – an extremely good number for a planet that is not yet fifty years colonised – which is due to its importance. She already knows the primary occupation is ore mining, although secondary occupations have now become more than just afterthoughts and are now income earning. She is somewhat dismayed, though not entirely surprised that the Tower complex is very separate from the city itself. It is a short distance really and the non-family tower staff commute, so she intends to do so as well.

She manages quite well in arranging her accommodation through the acquaintances of her brother. Her apartment will be basic, but the kind of basic she has in her accommodations at the Reidinger complex, rather than the kind of basic she had on Vega, and she is happy to tentatively accept a few invitations for events before she has even left Earth.

The ‘port to Aurigae tower is as perfect as she has come to expect – her grandfather has a few words for her as she straps herself into the carrier. She can feel, in the background that he is still carrying on with his duties, shuttling cargo in and our even as they talk. He, like most of the family has the ability to double-speak. Tia does not – it would be an advantage, but she doesn’t really regret the lack of that subset of telepathic talent.

 _I expect you to behave yourself as comports a Prime, and a Raven, granddaughter_ , he says. As if she has ever not, for when it comes down to it she might hold opinions that they do not like but she has never been an embarrassment to them in her behaviour.

 _Of course, Earth Prime,_ she replies formally, _I intend to do my duty to Aurigae tower._

She can sense that he is not entirely happy with her reply, but she does not know why. She has no particular wish to clarify the vague discontent she feels from him – he must be leaking strongly for she’s no empathy, or perhaps this is another test and it is deliberate. She has no way of knowing – she never does – and formality is a safe option.

The Aurigae-merge collect her at the half-way – she can feel both Damia and Afra within the merge though they are so seamless as to be almost one – and deposit her in the cradle. She has arrived at the end of their shift, as planned. She is warmly welcomed to Aurigae by her aunt, who briefly embraces her, a treatment she neither expects, nor gets from her far more restrained uncle. He does, however, welcome her, and both enquire as to her trip, which, of course, she can only reply was completely as expected.

She is introduced officially to the tower staff, and expresses her preference to be simply called Tia, which they all are happy to accept, although Damia frowns slightly. The team here at Aurigae Tower have remained unchanged for many years, Tia knows, enough to be held up as an example. Keylarion (T-6) is the stationmaster who was formerly an expediter. That position is now occupied by a woman a few years older than Tia, an Aurigaen native T-4 by the name of Naja. Xexo is the grizzled old T-8 engineer, a man who Tia is quite sure is a living stereotype. Even his mind touch is _grease/hum/metallic_.

She is shown through the Tower as well by Keylarion as Damia and Afra have retreated to the house to refresh themselves. Keylarion has her test the couch she will be using, and Tia is assured that it will be installed late tomorrow, as they expect her to spend the first few days settling in. There is nothing at all unexpected in the Tower; it is clean and bright, though homey rather than stark, right down to the engine room that houses the two largest dynamos outside of Blundell and Callisto.

Her obvious appreciation of the Tower itself, and her sensible questions to its staff have obviously endeared her to the team here. Or perhaps they are just used to Raven Primes? Nevertheless, she does sense approval from them, and feels she’s going to have a better time than expected.

She really does need a cure for her optimism, she thinks, as Keylarion escorts her down to the main house. It has got her into rather a lot of trouble before.

It’s dinner time on Aurigae, Damia tells her, and her aunt is well aware that it is around lunch time on Earth. Tia is not averse to having conversation over a meal – especially not a home cooked one.

Very little of it is unexpected to her – it’s roughly the same kind of interrogation she got on Deneb, mixed with the same kind of gossip about their various relatives. She answers the questions she wishes to, deflects the ones she doesn’t, and only asks questions herself if she needs to clarify (usually it’s a matter of exactly who they’re speaking of, and thus why they matter, but sometimes it’s finding out about events that everyone seems to know, thus she should). Tia does ask about Aurigae in general, and the City in particular – she will be living here for six months after all – and they are happy enough to answer her questions.

They’re genuinely shocked to find that Tia wants to take an apartment outside of the family compound – they had expected her to stay, have even prepared a room for her - though they do agree that they had assumed, rather than asked. Damia asks repeatedly if she is sure that she would be happy off-site, and Afra says little but does voice his concern for a young lady on her own out in the City. Both mention that they are feeling the empty nest somewhat, and would love her to stay, but she is resolute.

She even pulls on the heartstrings herself – she mentions her brother’s experience in Aurigae from a few years ago, which they are surprised to learn about – she will even be living in the same apartment tower, next to the hospital. She’s used to the environment of a hospital complex, and it would be comforting. It’s only a block across the park from expediter Naja, so they can’t say she’s  _alone_ , not really, and she trots out that  _never alone when you’re a talent_ trope. 

It turns out that the medical centre hosts the best parties, and when she attends the one at the end of the week, she is pleasantly surprised when the experience lives up to the hype. She’s young, and female. She needs literally nothing else on this planet to be popular.

Tia _does_ compromise, and agrees on taking lunch with them, and dinner once a week, which has the upside of no cooking, but the downside of needing to share with an endless succession of animals. She likes animals, but in much, much smaller quantities than are found in the Lyon household, as it turns out. After the first dinner, her aunt and uncle are kind enough to restrict most of them from the dining room.

She’s interested despite herself in the stories of family (it’s almost as Ro described it on Deneb, just less people. Then again, there are eight children and seven grandchildren in the family so it’s practically Denebian sized.

Her cousins are a constant source of conversation between them. Through her time at Blundell, and on her visits to Deneb, she had met nearly all of the cousins, and many of the extended family too, though as always it’s only briefly.

 Laria was still on Clarf, and she had two young children with her Twic, and was pregnant again. The Lyons seemed to go for long families. Both Josh and his younger sister Afia were likely Prime material, as were their cousins Erica and Robert Greevy-Lyon, who they were of an age with. She would probably meet them, as Aurigae was a natural holiday point for them all. Rosia Eagles-Lyon was the youngest grand-child currently, only a year old, though both Damia and Afra agreed she wasn’t likely to be a Prime. Rojer and Asia were expecting a second child – they wanted a very long family for some reason, despite being one of eight (Rojer and ten (Asia). Thian and Rojer (and their wives) were both still with the Fleet, though if the families got any larger then they’d have to transfer to planetary postings.

Zara had started a relationship, much to the horror of just about everyone in FT&T – and Tia remembers the whispers and the scandal – with Xahra Maitland from Betelgeuse several years ago. They had a child – Xahra’s with an unknown donor – who Damia seemed to be in two minds about.

Morag, Kaltia and Ewain all had Towers – Ewain was still at Capella, Morag and Kaltia had, like their eldest sister, been placed into Mrdini planet towers, Morag at Kif, and Kally at Tplu. None had long term partners, nor children.

Petra is not going to be given an assignment long term either, like most, they’re told just before one lunch break shortly after Tia starts. She will go to supplement her brother Rojer’s crew in the Fourth Fleet while Rojer and Asia have their second child, then she’ll probably do the same for Laria.

It’s kind of a relief, but not really.

Working with Damia and Afra turns out to be 100% like she expected it to be. They have incredibly high standards, which she meets, but they are understanding of the things she doesn’t know. She learns a lot – mainly, it has to be said, from Afra. He’s not a Prime, but only because he refuses to be re-rated. He’s had decades of experience, and fully utilises his talent. Tia hopes to be as comfortable with the depth of her talent – one day. It’s something to work for!

She is not perfect, and she knows it, however.

“You hold back, Tia,” Afra tells her, a little over halfway into her stay, “You hold something back of yourself in the merge. It is not an issue for your work currently, as you well know. But it may make a difference at some point, when you need every ounce of your ability.”

Tia frowns. It’s nothing she hasn’t heard before. Jinnifer and David back on Vega had said much the same when she was a child, and it had come up more than as few times during her training period. Her instructors had eventually given up on attempting to fix the problem because nothing had worked. Even her grandfather had been called upon once, much to Tia’s irritation. Certainly it wasn’t as troubling to them as Celia’s tendency to take over Merges, nor Lusi and Remek’s problem of failing to come out of merges, so it had been let go. She could still function as a part of a merge, and there had never been a complaint about her ability to _push_. Just the failure to fully ‘merge

“It is not conscious,” she replies, then explains in brief that this was not a new issue.

Afra frowns slightly – Afra does everything only slightly when it comes to emotions. His body cues are nearly non-existent. “We have seen something similar when we have new trainees uncomfortable with their talent.”

Tia shrugs, but since it isn’t really a problem-problem, they let it go. Her work is up to standard, and that’s all that matters.

She’d be lying if she said she didn’t count down the days – she’s fine, really, though the lingering discomfort doesn’t ever really go away – and she never really unpacks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here comes Aunty Damia!


	8. Chapter 8

**PART EIGHT: NO REGRETS**

Her Contract at Aurigae is extended for another eight months.

She gets the news from Earth Prime directly after a shift, which, while it’s fairly usual for a new assignment, is significantly unusual for an extension that she’s getting red flags. She knows she works competently enough for Aurigae tower – she also knows that there is a personality clash between herself and her aunt that makes merging still a little uncomfortable – but she can’t say that she wants to be here. She doesn’t know  _why_  they would want her to stay here either. 

If it’s a request from her Aunt (or Uncle) she has no idea what for, but surely she’s better off doing something somewhere (anywhere) else. If it’s a concern on the part of FT&T for her performance, she doesn’t know what that is, aside from the known problem, nor how to get them off her back. FT&T certainly can’t be concerned with the workload at Aurigae, they’re pushing out a lot of ore, but it’s not an unusual amount, and, indeed, it’s less than was being pushed while the  _Washington_  was being built several years ago, and the tower doesn’t need a second full-time Prime, not when a succession of T-2’s and T-3’s float through.

She redoubles her efforts, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference in how she is dealt with.

Over the next couple of months, they even discuss keeping her after _that_ contract expires, as if she literally has nowhere else to be. Which, might even be a little bit true, but she’s been here for eight months now, and the thought of the next six is hard enough without knowing an end date.

When she’s told the following day at lunch that they are expecting Petra home shortly as she has finished covering Rojer’s and then Laria’s leave, she’s even more frustrated.

 What can she do?

 Nothing, she knows. _Don’t sweat it,_ her father advises.

Petra’s return necessitates a change in the household – Tia expects to slide down one on the pecking order, so is not disappointed when that happens, even though she is Petra’s senior by some months.

 She wouldn’t say that they are friends, though; certainly she is more comfortable with Petra than with any of the others in the family. Perhaps there is enough similarity to her step-sisters to be comforting.

She does encourage her cousin to come out to the hospital parties, and a few times Petra does. Petra is surprised by the parties and the people there – she wasn’t one of the Lyons who had visited the city often – and seems to enjoy it (and the attention that she gets). They settle into their adjusted routine well enough.

They are out hunting for the weekend’s dinner table, though Petra’s Mrdini friends have cried off to collect vegetables from the gardens. They’ve almost caught enough, and are headed back to the skimmer. The late afternoon sun is pleasant but not too hot, and she is content.

“It’s nice, you know, having you here.” Petra says. Petra says a lot, and it’s easier to just let her continue, than to try to divert her.

“We all sort of got paired off. Well, not really. Laria, Thi and Roj were always together and doing this and that. Zara was kinda self-sufficient, although she used to do stuff with Morag, and Kally, sometimes. Then Ewain and I kinda got lumped together being the youngest. But he’s a boy, and, well, you know him, right. He’s kinda annoying, even as brothers go, and even more now he has an actual Tower.”

Tia affirmed that she did, indeed, know Ewain, though admitted to not knowing him well. He was now Tower Prime at Capella, the previous Capella Prime having been retired medically only a few months before. His promotion had not improved his demeanour.

Petra was not deterred. “D’you remember when Zara visited you guys? I remember that. She’s only eight and a bit years older than me, ‘coz mum popped us out pretty much every two years on the dot after Roj. Makes May and June fun with all the birthdays. Anyway, she was really excited because it was the first time she really got to do an assignment. We were all talking about it over dinner one day.”

Tia wonders idly if  _that’s_ ethical, as she lines up a shot at a scurrier, as most psych is covered by confidentialities. She despatches the scurrier neatly, and they collect it. It’s the last that they’ll need for what Damia has planned for tonight.

“Laria remembered you as well, you know. Actually all the older ones did.” Tia’s surprised at that. She’d had literally nothing to do with the older boys in the Lyon family. Petra obviously notices, because Tia can  _see_ / _hear_  that her cousin is almost compelled to explain, “Well, you were supposed to be our other sister, you know. We all sorta kept an ear out for news.”

“Was I?” this is definitely news to Tia, they might have kept their ears out but they’d certainly never tried to talk to her.

“Oh, yes!” Petra says cheerfully. “I don’t know much because of course because I wasn’t born yet, it’s just what I heard then at dinner. Your dad was kinda crazy when you were born, what with your mum being totally crazy and everything. Sorry!”

Tia waves it aside, because it’s true. She has no interest in meeting Louisa, and takes no offense to the mention of the circumstances of her birth. To do so has always been seen as defense of Louisa Tollman’s actions, and she’s not about to do that.

“Anyways, Grandmother and Grandfather were going to get him to give you and your brother up, because he wasn’t really fit to raise children, especially not Talented ones and you were going to come here. Your brother was probably going to Uncle Jeran, or maybe even Grandmother Isthia. I don’t know why you didn’t.”

 _That_ feels like a hammer blow. They would have separated her family over it? Tia knows her shock is leaking out through her shields, and she tightens them back down. _Go back to your training_ , she reminds herself, _positive feedback, not negative._   _Don’t let your Talent spiral out of your control_. 

Petra continues, as tactfully and obliviously as ever, “They must have come to some agreement, mum said, so that your dad could keep you. Increased monitoring, evaluations to make sure you weren’t going deviant in a toxic environment, a bit more behavioural adjustment tinkering than usual… that kind of thing. They kinda have to get Primes into good environments so they don’t go totally whacko.”

 _Raven-Lyons are particularly good at glossing over the nastier things, like deep compulsions and behavioural adjustments_ , Tia notes detachedly.

“Laria told us that she remembered lots of conversations going on. Grandmother and Grandfather were furious apparently, because the whole thing looked bad, and could become a total PR disaster if you went crazy as well. Gosh, she said Grandmother was glad it was on Vega where it could be hushed up, not like if it was on Earth or Deneb or something. Laria was fourteen then, I think, and in training to go to Clarf, and she must have heard a lot of it. Mum and Dad stopped her from going to your dad’s place for the whole of her rotation through Vega because of it.”

 They have reached the skimmer, and Tia is glad.

She begs off meal-prep to place a call to both her father and brother – Deneb Prime Jeran isn’t terribly happy at the request – it is a little unorthodox. But he does allow it, perhaps sensing her turmoil. Her father’s expecting her call, his prescience is helpful, and she lets it all pour out. It’s not really a surprise, not when she thinks about it, but it’s still a shock.

 _Would they really have taken us away?_ she asks softly.

Her father is silent for a long time.

 _They were going to take us away_ , Ro interjects, shocked himself. He too, has been subjected, though not as minutely, to the same scrutiny. _Why weren’t we told? Why not tell us this?_

 _Like,_ Tia clenches her fists, _We know about my mother, and a little of what happened. It’s always been rationalised to me as about HER, not about YOU, or us! As if something was intrinsically wrong with ME just for being born, and not about how I was raised!_

Still, their father is silent.

 _It never even occurred to me!_ Ro interjects, _And I was seven! That’s old enough to be told, old enough to make decisions. I only remember Mother leaving, and she left quick enough. But we were fine, Dad, you raised us just fine! I don’t remember anyone else in the family ever coming and talking to me about how I was, or what I wanted. It’s always been other people making decisions about us without telling us. Why didn’t_ you _tell us that part, dad?_ Ro beseeches their father.

 _I wasn’t allowed to!_ Ezro says finally, _It was part of the deal I made to keep you. I couldn’t tell you what had happened, nor what I had to allow in order to keep you. You couldn’t know about the monitoring, in case you managed to evade it, or something. I never really understood that part either, but I couldn’t think too much on it at the time, and by the time I thought to question it, it was made pretty clear that it was to be kept quiet and not discussed._

 _It was all kind of obvious!_ Tia hisses mentally, _All the extra shit I had to go through. All the extra shit I_ still _go through. If I’d known it was about my childhood, and not about my mother I wouldn’t have felt like I had to try so hard to be perfect all the time!_

Ro is leaking frustration, and she distantly senses Eleanor emoting calm. _I remember it too, the extra interviews, and the more thorough testing than anyone else. I never understood why! I remember being dismissed when I got the T-5 rating, as if I wasn’t powerful enough to be a concern._ He sighs. _It makes sense, now, yes. But it would have been... reassuring to know WHY._

Ezro sighs mentally, _I will not pretend that the execution has been perfect, but their intentions were good._

 _Fine,_ Tia says, _I’ll not even start on intentions, but what exactly were they expecting by keeping this from us? They couldn’t possibly expect us to be happy to know we were raised amongst lies and blackmail when we found out. And we were always going to find out eventually._

 _It’s not like that,_ their father says weakly. But she senses that even he knows it’s not right.

Ro snorts, _Of course it is. Why even go through all this to keep us?_

_I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you, never knowing you just like we never really knew the rest of the family. It was this way, distant, even before. I could not imagine what my life would be like, alone on Vega, without you. I have tried my best to make up for it – I am sorry for my selfishness – but I know it’s not enough._

Tia is suddenly no longer angry, just deeply saddened. _What a mess_ , she thinks. _Dad, I have no blame for you._ She senses his acceptance/relief. Ro adds his own sympathy, and the mental hug is comfoting. _I understand, but I just feel like it’s all too much to really take in._

They agree to sit on it all for a day or two, and plan to talk again, when Ro can beg some time with Deneb Tower’s generator. Tia slumps back into her couch. She doesn’t feel like facing dinner, but she doesn’t really have a choice.

She is quiet enough it worries her aunt. Damia doesn’t really pry-pry. But she’s mother to eight children and she seems to have an almost magic ability to translate the faintest leaks of thought into what the actual problem is. Tia hates it.

Her aunt does wait until they have finished dessrt before bringing it up.

Tia tries to evade, “Just some unexpected news that I am not sure what to think of. I need a few days to chew on it.”

But Damia isn’t going to have that. She and Afra share a look that speaks volumes.

“You know you can always speak to us if there is something on your mind,” Afra says.

Damia nods, “A problem shared is a problem halved.”

“I wasn’t aware that it was common knowledge that my mother was basically an awful person,” Tia says shortly, “Nor did I know that there were plans to remove me and my brother from my father’s care.”

Both blink in surprise. Petra shuffles uncomfortably in her chair – her public mind exudes ‘ooops’. Some quick conversation occurs on a level that she does not hear, and Petra excuses herself, before hastily retreating from the room.

Tia massages her temples – she is rapidly developing a headache. “I would appreciate a few days to think about this,” she says.

That she isn’t going to be given that time is quickly becoming apparent.

“Petra will be spoken to about what is appropriate to share and what is not,” Afra says by way of apology.

Tia waves a hand in dismissal, “She’s younger than I am, and probably understands very little of the context, nor the deals that were made. Quite frankly I’m glad to know.”

That has again surprised them. “You are?” Damia questions.

“My life makes a lot more sense.” Tia doesn’t feel the need to expand on her answer.

There is a pause, though she senses more conversation going on than she can’t hear. It _is_ rather rude but she doesn’t feel like calling them out on it right now.

“Well, I’m relieved that you’re being reasonable about this,” Damia says, finally.

Tia shrugs, “I’ve barely had the time to think it all through. I’m not happy about any of it, of course, and quite frankly some of it disgusts me entirely, but I’m afraid that I’m still in shock at the moment, and will get to the angry part later, I’m sure.”

This frank admission was not the wisest to make, Tia admits, and the tension ratchets back up. They’re not sure how to reply. The private conversations slip somewhat, she gets quick flashes of some emotion she cannot identify, and a fragment of a sentence – _why...disgust?_

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Damia says.

“Only that I have a deep aversion to compulsions and behavioural conditioning,” Tia replies offhandedly, “And to know that it has been extensively used against me with the coerced consent of my father, and the approval of most of the extended family is abhorrent.”

Damia gapes at her.

“You do hold back,” Afra collects himself first, “It is of concern.”

 “My father tells me I didn’t hold back until _after_ my first encounter with that sadistic, laughable excuse for a testing officer that Kepler got stuck with,” She counters, growing angry with the memory of violation. “Oh, I will admit it’s not healthy to hate him, but I still do. He was lousy at compulsions. He made me cry, every six months, for nearly ten years. Of course I held back after that.”

Damia is not sympathetic. “You know, of course, that it was necessary.”

“Was it?” she shoots back. “Was it really? Do you do this to your own children?”

They deflect with declarations that it was hardly necessary, as their children are healthy, well-adjusted adults.

Tia scoffs. Both her aunt and uncle are exuding righteousness. Tia hates righteousness. She feels like screaming in frustration. “I’d understand, maybe, if some precog somewhere said something about me going loco, but you have _nothing_  to go on, do you. You can’t say that it was necessary, because you have no damn thing to base it on.”

She knows she is right, here, and they have no answer to that. Afra is attempting to calm her – she knows all the crowd control techniques and she is having none of it.

“I could have grown up  _fine_  without the messing around people have done in my head. I certainly would have been more confident in myself if I knew that people would support me rather than tearing me down with comparisons to my mother for the slightest mistake! Do you have any idea how awful it is to be scrutinised so closely?” She is shouting now, furious, hurting.

Damia is stony in face and in mind.

“The  _One. Damn. Thing._  I can take from this is that my dad loved me and my brother enough to fight that hard to keep us, against FT&T, against his parents, and grandmother, and his siblings. But you’re still being self-righteous here! Imagine how much easier it would have been for everyone if, instead of messing with our heads more, you acted as family. If instead of keeping my father, YOUR BROTHER in exile on Vega, barely speaking to him, or me, or Ro, you actually did call. If you did invite us over, or come and visit us. You wouldn’t have to  _worry_  about us and out mental states, because you’d  _know_!”

She shakes her head in disbelief.

“We grew up with Dad, and only Dad, not because of him, but because of  _you_. All of you. I never met  _any_  of the rest of the family properly until Zara, when I was  _fifteen_! And she was on  _an assignment to make sure I wasn’t crazy_. And Ro! He met you all that one time on Callisto. Then Laria once, before he moved to Deneb and got to know everyone there. He was  _here on Aurigae_  for a year, and you didn’t notice!”

She calms herself down enough that she can feel the disapproval of Many Minds, all listening in. Damia, she knows, is still shielding strongly, but double-talking is a gift Tia knows her aunt has. No, it is Afra, she feels, who has reached out for the Rowan, and it is her grandmother who has gathered the strength of the others in the family. She can feel them, they are waiting for her to do something unforgivable, she knows. It is a trap, waiting to spring closed if she puts her foot down any further.

She will not give them the satisfaction.

“Even now, you dismiss me as crazy.” She says quietly, knowing that they are broadcasting her words for everyone to hear, “Even now, you believe me to be wrong. You consider my feelings on what you have done to me as irrelevant, you do not see that they are the result of your actions; you believe instead that you did not go far enough in adjusting my thinking. You will likely try again – and I’m now fairly sure that you have been doing so during my entire time here. It would take a lot of tinkering, I think we all agree,” here, she laughs bitterly, “to make anyone who finds tinkering abhorrent suddenly believe it is acceptable for the greater good.”

Still, they say nothing, but she finds she doesn’t need them to. Her anger is winding down, but she does not find regret replacing it. She truly means what she has said, and thinks it should have been said a long, long time ago. She feels, just for a micro second, a flash from her brother. It is one of approval.

“I don’t think it would be appropriate to continue in my position here, and I’m sure you agree.” Damia finally gives her a response, a tiny, very forced nod. The Many Minds relax – they are no longer looming large, but they are not gone. Tia will be gracious in her exit; she will not let her audience doubt that.  “Thank you for the opportunity to work here at Aurigae. I do think I have learned a lot, and I do believe it has been a valuable experience. I _am_ sorry to leave on such a note, but our mutual differences in belief are incompatible with working together further. If you have no objection,” and this she broadcasts for clarity, “I would like to collect my things. I am sure someone has made a decision on where I am to go next.”

 Afra, inclines his head to give her permission, and he lifts his hand from his wife’s shoulder – Damia, they both know, is still trying to control her own anger. The Minds allow her to collect her belongings, though Afra is following along. They neatly stack everything into a carrier, as Tia has not managed in only a year to expand into the space of her apartment.

They leave Damia seated in the dining room, Afra escorting her alone to the Yard. The Tower is dark, and empty. They do not say goodbyes.

She does give Gollee Gren a nod of greeting as she arrives into Blundell. She has no doubt that he knows of what has transpired – Gollee Gren knows everything. He directs her to leave her belongings. She is expected in Earth Prime’s office.

“Isthia,” her grandfather says, as she arrives on the carpet. Tia looks at him in confusion for a second, before realising he _is_ speaking to her. It’s a measure of just ridiculous this whole, awful thing is, that her _grandfather_ doesn’t know how much she hates that name.  Isthia has never been her name. She has always been Tia. Tea-Tea on occasion. Teapot to her father. But _never_ Isthia. She, like Ro, will never name her children after family, as useless as most of her family have been, for they’ll have enough to live up to when they are children, without the weight of the decades of achievement of another person’s _lifetime_.

Earth Prime is not deterred from the conversation he intends to have by quibbling about a name. He has that conversation, though it is incredibly one sided. Tia has had enough of banging her head against brick walls for one day.

She does not allow him into her mind – he presses only once, and withdraws. His disappointment is palpable.

She knows that she’s effectively just scuppered her career at the grand old age of twenty.

She doesn’t care. She passes the psych evals they barrage her with, and when it comes through the following week that David Owens is in ill health and needs a twic with oomph, she jumps at the chance to go home. It’s not like anyone else wants to volunteer to go to _Vega_ , and the powers that be don’t consider an ‘extended apprenticeship on a backwater planet’ a waste of her talents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well everything is out in the open now!


	9. Chapter 9

**PART  NINE: PRODIGAL**

There is something about Vega that always calls you home – or so the saying goes.

When the offers come in from Vega City Hospital, it’s too good to pass up. Ro needs little pushing, nor does Eleanor – she’s a Deneb girl, but in many ways, she’s happier away from the overwhelming mass of family, the sly questions about Ro’s sister, and from the detractors that _still_ lament their elopement, even two years on.

After all, she notes, with a twinkle in her eye, they’ve a family of their own now (and at this, Ro kisses her very firmly, in awe of the tiny spark of new life).

They settle in with ease – this is Home for Ro, and Eleanor has visited often enough to feel the ease of familiarity. The contract comes with a fully furnished apartment on the medical complex – standard provision nowadays – and a substantial moving bonus. The hospital even agrees to pay through their parental leave – they’re not entitled, strictly, but even now medics of the quality of the Doctors Raven do not grown on trees.

Michaela is followed by James in quick order – Eleanor is as close to her brother, as Ro is to Tia – both parents wish for their children as close a sibling relationship as they have had. Neither are brought into the world by Ezro’s steady hands. In this, he is a father and a grandfather, not a physician. Nevertheless, he is, as with all of his new ‘children’ at their beck and call (and that of exhausted new parents) for the first few weeks of life.

Ro’s never been happier.

They meet for dinner often, all of them – sometimes at Kepler, sometimes at Vega. Maisa and Irinie are both married and in Vega City as well, and sometimes they, and their families come too.

Tia’s always happy to be on call for ‘porting family, and even if she’s busy with Tower work, Ezro’s quite capable of lifting himself and Idra cross-planet.

It comes as no surprise to anyone when Tia first brings Mitchell home for dinner. It’s Vega – Ro already knows everything that gossip can tell him of Mitchell Dartt. (He’s a geological engineer in the mines, specialising in crystal formations. He’s a Vegan native, only child, his parents are Karin and Willem Dartt, originally from Earth, both engineers. No known vices, or previous long-term entanglements).

In fact, they joke, Ro probably knew about Mitchell’s intentions of dating his sister before said sister did. Tia has not developed her empathic abilities at all over time – well, no more than required by the ‘Tower-Crew Resource  Management’ courses everyone has to take and then universally review as both entirely obvious and a complete waste of time. Mitchell has not been subtle - well, not to everyone else, at least.

Nevertheless, their relationship progresses quickly. It is not... well regarded within the extended family. Very little of what Tia does is approved of, so she has developed a practiced ignorance of their opinions. Mitchell is not at all talented – in fact he’s one of the rare ‘anti-talented’ with an impassable mental shield (although Ro is firmly convinced this is a talent in and of itself).

Their relationship was always going to be unlike Ro and Eleanor’s measured courtship, and the disapproval of her grandparents, not to mention then extended family only spurs Tia to a quicker resolution than might have come otherwise. They are engaged after only four months, and married within another four... Tia is not yet noticeably pregnant at the wedding – at least, not to those who aren’t talented, and certainly not when compared with Eleanor, heavily-pregnant with James. But then few talents attend –the groom’s family are not talented. On the bride’s side, are her immediate family, around half of her high-T classmates (a group which does, admittedly include Johnny Raven, fresh off his apprenticeship as a fleet Prime, waiting for his own assignment, though Celia’s father declines on her behalf), and those of the Tower crew that might be spared.

James Raven finds himself at four months sharing his nursery with newborn Laura Raven-Dartt. Michaela is certainly not fazed at the addition of another newborn. At two, she’s not particularly interested in either of them. James, however, finds his cousin to be endlessly fascinating, and the three are near inseparable as they grow.

Tia too, treasures the bond with her brother, and delights that her daughter is so close to her cousins. Her pregnancy took a lot out of her – it takes four years before she can think to brave another try, although this time things run smoother. The Tower staff have changed for the better – she is twenty six, not twenty-two and has learned much in those four years. David remains in indifferent health – he is there most of the time, but not always _there_ – and she is defacto Vega Prime. She is fairly sure, given the relative importance of Vega, that she will be replaced if David is forced to retire, but that is not a source of worry yet.

Motherhood has calmed her and, in many ways, given her something else to focus on and believe in, filling the gap that FT&T was once forced to inhabit. When Madeline is born, she is thrilled. Maddy is the perfect baby, undemanding, sleeping through the night from the start, chubby-cheeked and giggling. Tia resolves to have another as soon as possible. Edie comes on schedule 14 months later, much to her parents’ delight.

Mitchell dotes on his girls, and takes perhaps more than his share of caring for them, as Tia’s demanding schedule means she can’t be home as much as she likes. Sure, the commute is fine, but the bosses know that and the hours in the tower itself are long. Both bless Eleanor’s patience in dealing with Tia’s three talented children in addition to her own two. By the time Maddy and Edie start their terrible twos and threes, however, Michaela, who is as steady as her mother and mature for a nine year old, is quite capable of cleaning up most of their messes if she can’t prevent them in the first place. Ezro, too, having raised two talented children (and largely alone) steps in both when needed and wherever he can. He delights in encouraging his children and their spouses to take an evening off, so that he may dote on his grandchildren without the same pressures he had with his children.

Maisa and Irinie have both married well, and their children, untalented, become playmates to their step-cousins. It becomes a lesson to the children, as it was to Tia with their respective mothers, that not all people are talented, that in fact very few were, really, just one in six hundred had any talent at all, and that having a talent meant you had a responsibility.

Life is almost blissful.

The following year brings paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork. They pass their five-yearly tower review at Vega with near flying colours, and Tia passes her ten-year employment review. She could almost sigh with relief. Ten years down, and ten to go. Sure, FT&T contracts might be the best, financially speaking , and sure, there are pretty strict restrictions on what you can do even after the contract ends (and stricter penalties if you don’t abide them), but Tia can’t see her future in FT&T. Not now.

Oh, she might take a rolling temporary contract to stay on Vega – David is definitely failing and refusing to admit it, and the tower staff are perpetually taking on more of his workload, because the man does have his pride – but Mitchell’s salary and the money they have saved will keep them and the girls well enough on Vega even without her holding down a job. She won’t be able to use her Talents in the mines, that’s disallowed – but she’s been taking the odd night-class and at this point wouldn’t mind a more down-to-earth job, so to speak. She might be wasted as a secretary, but she’d be a damned good one if she had to be.

Accidents in the mines aren’t uncommon. Vegan crystal is valuable - well worth the prices paid for it. No-one would live on Vega if it wasn’t. But it’s an unpredictable beast, dangerous and deadly.

Mitchell is doing a safety audit on Kepler’s A-shaft when it happens.

Tia knows the instant that he falls. She doesn’t remember her anguished scream, nor her frantic jump cross-planet mid-shift. But she will never forget the fading of his mind. She stares out the plasglas onto Kepler colony and cries for the future she and her children no longer have.

Her own father joins her after he scrubs himself clean. He does not need to say anything (they are telepaths, after all). Tia knows that he tried his best. Ezro knows that she knows. It is enough for now.

Tia’s tears dry up after uncountable hours, and she lets her father, brother and boss ‘port her back home to tell her girls that their father will not be coming back.

She copes.

Barely.

David Owens is as kind as he might be (how he finishes the shift, or the next two she never knows) but they are tower talents, and they must do their jobs. Still, he leans more heavily on the others in the Tower than he usually does, and he leans heavily these days. He does her paperwork, or passes it on to their expediter to be done. They do not mention her mistakes, merely fix them and move on.

It’s a testament to how just-barely she is coping that it takes her a month, and several blatant hints from various people before she realises that she is pregnant. This is something she can’t deal with, not with everything else. The morning sickness kicks in, and it is debilitating. Her bereavement leave is up, and she asks for medical consideration, but it’s declined by Blundell because she is only a Twic, no matter her _actual_ responsibilities. It occurs to her that without her influence, Earth has finally realised David’s actual state, and they’re forcing him out. It’s infuriating, and she throws herself back into work. She accepts the offer to move in with Willem and Karin, and is thankful that her father has taken a leave of absence to help with the girls. The kids go back to school and pre-school, for the routine more than anything else.

Normality is only a facade, but they’re trying.

Bad things happen in threes, is a saying her mother-in-law brings up at Sunday dinner not a month later. Karin hasn’t even a shred of prescient talent, but it just so happens that this time, she is right. The assignment comes through the next day. Tia wonders why the hell Earth Prime approved it, given his previous concerns with PR? Which imbecilic paper pushing desk jockey bastard decided now was a good time to even suggest it?! They must have someone in mind to take over Vega’s tower, and it’s definitely not her. Instead, she’ll be exiled out to the booniest planet that they can think of, just like her father before her.

And thus, Isthia Raven-Dartt is officially assigned a tower of her own at the grand old age of nearly-thirty (it takes them only a _decade and a half_ of training and assessment with FT &T for them to decide she’s _not actually_ like her mother), with an only weeks-dead husband, three children under ten and another on the way. It’s sheer madness.

Tia does not want to move to Tripoli (only just released for colonisation, a mostly Mrdini planet with human settlement at the poles, but the tower is, of necessity, equatorial), but she signed her FT&T contracts, and they’re not something she can get out of, and she tries all her avenues for appeal, even going straight to her grandfather to plead. He’s not particularly sympathetic, given their history. Besides, Earth Prime shrugs, it’s not exactly possible, not with her training debts still in the thousands of credits. She’s going to have to take a more lucrative position to get through the rest of that sum before her twenty years is up, as per her contract. Nothing else will manage that, except a remote Tower position, with its bonuses. _Really, Isthia_ , he says, _we’re trying to do our best for your future_.

She uproots her life, takes her daughters out of school and preschool, away from their friends and family. Here is yet another generation of this branch of the Ravens who will not know their grandparents, their extended family. Karen and Willem cannot afford to visit, and ‘Tia cannot take the time off, even if she could teleport herself and the children to Vega without the assistance of another Prime. Ezro is bound to Kepler just as she will be to Tripoli. _They_ have made sure she knows that she is shackled to her job.

Tripoli is a beautiful planet with some magnificent megafauna – although it’s boilingly hot outside the air-conditioning of the Tower complex. Tia doesn’t mind so much, she’s from a dome-city after all, but she has a hard time getting and keeping good tower staff. She has a reputation. Comparisons with her illustrious grandmother abound. Tia doesn’t care – she will not put up with people she doesn’t like for the sake of quieting rumours – until the threat comes down from on high, that if she does not sign off on her staff as-is, then it is easier to replace a Prime than an entire tower crew, and then she can deal with the punitive clauses in her contact by herself.

_How_ things have changed.

She signs off the crew. For good behaviour, she gets two of her training-class T-2 friends¸ Anath and Nezha, (now married with their own two children) to cover her few allotted weeks of maternity leave.

She is back on shift, not long after Isla is born, on the day that her great-grandmother Isthia Crane Raven dies. Tia is not unaware of, nor unsympathetic to, the grief of the extended Raven clan. She just does not have any grief to spare for someone she barely knows and doesn’t like, namesake or not. Neither do her father, or brother, or sister-in-law seem to grieve. Ezro was not raised on Deneb like his siblings. Ro has met great-grandmother only a few times (which is more than she has, _namesake or not_ ), and he lived on Deneb for _years_. Eleanor was never forgiven for her perceived transgressions, never welcomed back into the fold. She does grieve, Eleanor tells Tia later, for what should have been, more than for what was.

They choose, all of them, to tune out the nearly overwhelming sadness of the family. She is a Tower Prime, in a family of Tower Primes. _She_ can hide her feelings (lack of grief for Isthia and maybe even a little bit of guilt for it) behind a professional mask, even as her counterparts are largely failing to do so.

She does not attend the funeral, nor listen to the broadcasts from multiple relatives. Instead, like the non-Raven Primes, she remains at her post and they succeed in keeping the galaxy running with half the Towers empty (not for the first time, she thinks that the nepotism detractors have a point). Ezro and the Dr.’s Shorit-Raven do attend, but when they next _talk_ say nothing about it, because Isla smiling for the first time is far, far more important to a besotted mother, and an equally besotted grandpa.

Tia is damn good at her job, and she makes sure everyone knows it for the next eight years. Their audits always come back exemplary. Her staff satisfaction and engagement surveys are among the top five in all of FT&T, and among the number crunchers she has some approval, even though there is little among the top management (She still waits until the very last minute to decline when the twenty-year review with its automatic contract extension is scheduled. She works until the very last second they’re entitled to, and then ‘ports the family to Vega. FT&T panics, and requires substantial bribes to fill the position, she’s told later. Tripoli is not the most attractive of destinations, and the multitude Primes of this era are certainly wiser than she was).

She’s a damn good mother, and her kids are packed and ready to go home. Her eldest, Laura, is now 16 and ready to move on to better things, just waiting for the chance to study as an engineer like her father and grandparents.

And because she’s such a damn good mother, none of her girls,  presumptive T-1’s the lot, go anywhere near FT&T. Nor do her niece and nephew – T-3 and T-4 near as she can tell – both studying to be doctors like their parents.

FT&T might not have known about her plans, but her family certainly did. Thom, her classmate and paramour of all those years ago, took over the job as Vega Prime less than a year after her own assignment. He takes over the ‘port halfway and welcomes her with the quiet aside that they’re all waiting in the arrivals hall. She gets an invite to dinner – she has not met his wife, nor their son. Thom is correct, however. They’re _all_ there in the arrivals hall just as promised – Ezro and Idra, Karin and Willem, Ro and Eleanor and Michaela and James, Maisa, Irinie, their husbands and all the children.

Tia is _home_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A friend of mine lost her newborn, only four days old recently. I've named Tia's youngest after her. RIP Isla, you were much loved, and will be missed.


	10. EPILOGUE

**EPILOGUE:**

Ezro Raven dies just as he has lived, quietly. He is just seventy-nine. A heart condition, Ro learns from his father’s will, one that even modern medicine cannot repair. His father had known about it for quite some time, but hadn’t spoken to anyone but Idra about it since he’d known they’d only worry.

Kepler colony practically shuts down in the wake of the news. Dr. Ezro is not only popular, but an institution of the colony. More than one voice is heard to ask about the future of their colony hospital, though reassurances that the Shorit-Ravens will take up a position part time relieves them. Ezro had delivered nearly every child in the schools, and their parents, and some of their parents too. He had patched up injuries, given jabs, reminded gently when check-ups were due, and less gently when they were overdue. He’d been there for the dying, and a comfort to the families who’d lost loved ones.

Ro and Tia, their children and grandchildren spend a week at Kepler. Idra marshals everyone with her usual patient competence. She is looking old, frailer than ever, and she relies more on them, and Maisa and Irinie and their children than she ever has.

The Rowan and Jeff Raven, not often seen since their retirement to Deneb (both are into their twelfth decades and fragile), come for the three hours of Ezro’s public funeral, but are not there for the private celebrations. Jeran and Raini, and Damia and Afra (who is also looking frail) are also there in the background, and it’s _Zara_ of all people who gives a short eulogy on behalf of the extended family. Cera spares the time but her husband does not, nor do any of the other cousins, bar Dean. Earth Prime, Thian Raven-Lyon does not attend, although he sends Callisto Prime Morgelle Maitland-Raven as FT &T’s representative.

Time has healed _most_ of the wounds in this family. They forgive, they agree to disagree, but they do not forget.

Dean Raven spends three days helping Ro sort out his father’s mass of papers and books ( _actual books, Ro marvels_ ). Even Eleanor’s parents make the trip, and Bess spends the whole time cooking. She feeds everyone in Kepler, it seems, because everyone from Kepler (and it seems like half of Vega city too) drops by just to see how they are coping, or to share a memory

Ro can’t think of any other way his father would want to be farewelled (surrounded by his children and his _children_ ).

 (Ro still does not like giving a child the burden of a family name, but he frowns a little less than usual when his daughter names her newborn son Ezro).

**END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s notes:
> 
> Yes, this does have certain Ravens in a bad light. They run a monopoly on high-T Talents in the only organisation that has been shown in canon to have a multitude of high-T talents, although it seems there are rather a few in the Navy. You have to be more than a little bit ruthless for that. Hell, Reidinger (from The Rowan) kinda got off on being ruthless, yet had good intentions towards Rowan, and for FT&T in general.  
> Most of the events in the story.... it is not maliciousness, and I hope I’ve got that across ok. It’s just complacency, allowing others to make decisions and going along with them because someone’s told you it’s necessary. It’s becoming too stuck in a mindset collectively because there’s nobody who you take seriously enough who can break you out of it – because your whole family, who have all been raised in the same environment, believe the same thing.  
> Tia is reviled for being a product of Talented coercion through behavioural adjustment ‘tinkering’, and she sees basically only semantic differences between what her mother did to her father and what FT&T are/might be/won’t really admit to but totally are doing with her. Consequently she has problems, who wouldn’t?  
> I don’t like Jeff Raven too much (especially The Rowan’s version of Jeff Raven). Respect, yes. Like, no. Nor Isthia Raven.  
> Zara… She isn’t a doctor, whatever ‘Healer’ or ‘Medical Talent’ might imply, if she can’t manage the stress of Tower duty she isn’t going to be able to manage being an actual doctor. Given that she is out at sixteen-or-so with the Fleet, she wouldn’t have been able to train as one. I get the feeling that she’s a mind-tinkerer-psych (as a use of talent), and a xenobiologist (for the Mrdini contraceptive project), but nothing more. Elizara Reidinger-Matheson, yes, she’s a doctor and a Talent. But then, Elizara is a whole lot more practical and pragmatic than Zara is.  
> Morag and Kaltia’s ‘mindsdropping stunt on Clarf creeped me out when I read it, and actually helped to spawn this fic in the first place. The younger kids are barely mentioned, they’re (Morag and Kaltia along with Ewain and Petra) largely just fodder in the books for the “how awesome is Damia for popping out all these kids”, and it’s largely unnecessary for the plot. It seems to be an interesting contrast to the Rowan’s ‘I want five although I can’t exactly deal with having that many’. That said, there has to be a reason for excessive breeding, and I hope I covered that well enough.  
> T-1 Talents may have been rare in the early books, but given the “breeding situation”, I really don’t think so, not by the end. Hence the “placement” issues. I made a comment on an earlier chapter about Rojer mentioning in TTatH that there “are nearly a hundred of us now.”   
> Which kind of contrasts to the anti-nepotism/xenophobia arc in the book, but I digress. It also conflicts with the sheer number of towers run by T-2/T-3 groups (the Bastianmajanis on Altair, Yoshuk and Nesrun on Clarf, later Sef for starters)
> 
> Here’s some numbers:
> 
> If we assume that all of Jeran and Cera’s kids are Primes (only Barry is explicitly stated in canon to be so, though the other kids of Jeran are implied), it gives us around 20 Primes in the Gwyn-Raven clan alone:  
> Jeff + Rowan (2)  
> Jeran has 4 kids (+5 = 7)  
> Cera has 3 (+4 = 11)  
> Damia and her brood of 8 (+9 = 20)
> 
> David has 3 Prime kids, and there is a prime in his backyard apparently (+5)
> 
> Then there’s Capella, Flavia, and Elizara Reidinger who are the only other named T-1s who would be alive at this time in the series.
> 
> Which is a grand total of 28!
> 
> So I do reckon there are a succession of Reidingers, Roznines and Owenses who are T-1s or in T-2 pairings, and I have "invented" Earth’s secondary Tower network to place them all in, because it would have to be something “important” to keep them from being freely assignable to other new planets/Mrdini worlds. Perhaps there are a few young Denebians (and we can probably include Grandma Isthia in this number, maybe Raven relatives, maybe not.
> 
> Probably a few extra de novo Primes and T-2s are floating around, because it happens – The Rowan, for example, and David of Betelgeuse has one in his own backyard apparently.
> 
> Not all of them will be assignable to towers of course – Elizara is a T-1, potentially capable of performing as a Tower Prime, but doesn’t? (How was that allowed to work under Old Reidinger by the by? And Zara isn’t either. Presumably they’re not the only ones.)
> 
> I still can’t see that number stretching too much further than 60, but if anyone has any theories...

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve always got this ‘us vs. them’ kind of thing from TTatH series, about the talented and the not talented. More specifically, it’s about the Prime Talented Ravens, and the not. Admittedly, we see things from the Rowan/Damia/Lyon kids point of view, and never really see anything from /outside/ an FT&T perspective, because That Is Not The Point Of The Series.  
> Somebody wondered about Ezro Raven once on some forum – he’s subject to an Anne-achronism about being a Prime or a T-3. He’s definitely stated to be a Doctor and on Vega. I ran with it.


End file.
